Heartbreak City
by JulesSC
Summary: Booth and Brennan are back in DC after a year apart, two completely different people. He has a blonde on his arm, seemingly out of love with her, and she has heartbreak in her eyes, having come to terms with her love for him. Eventually BB.
1. Chapter 1

**Heartbreak City**

**Summary:** Booth and Brennan are back in DC after a year apart, two completely different people. He has a blonde on his arm, seemingly out of love with her, and she has heartbreak in her eyes, having come to terms with her love for him. The two of them bend and pull and push, but in the end, they are always meant to be. The story of how they finally get together, but not without its share of heartbreak. Eventually BB.

**A/N:** Hi, guys. Let me just say, first and foremost (because I always want to know at the beginning of an angst filled story), that this story _most definitely_ has a happy ending that is _most definitely_ filled with Booth/Brennan in love and where they belong - in each other's arms. I just had to put that out there - sorry if that ruined this story for you before you even began.

You and I both know very well that I am all about the fluff. I write angst constantly when it comes to my own characters in my own original stories (which I hope you will all get to read and even enjoy someday) but when it's characters of other writers, like BB or Bedward (remember that one?) I want them filled with joy and fluff and have a billion kids because the angst in canon was bad enough.

Then HH and SN came up with the completely ludicrous idea to give Booth a bimbo, one that he actually _fell in love_ with! I mean, I could probably live with 'like' or 'date', but 'fall in love'? That's where I draw the line.

So there I was, cursing HH and SN to the deepest pits of hell and having a restless, sleepless night tossing and turning…And _this_ story came rushing into my subconscious. It is, ladies and gentlemen, my first ever angst story and I'm surprised to say I'm proud of it. I'm shocked as hell that I could stomach to write it, but I did, and it came out not-so-sucky, IMHO. I'm not sure anyone else would love it, though. For diehard BB fans, let me just say that I am one too and it kills me to have them with anyone else.

Now, there isn't going to be any Booth/blonde bimbo love scenes because I just can't handle that, but he is going to be with her for a long time in this story. I'm sorry. But he won't be oblivious to his feelings for Brennan, either. And Brennan…Well, I know we've all come to know and love her as the emotional void/awkward scientist that she is, and she'll still have that, but I read a little comment somewhere that Brennan was going to surprise us all in season 6. I took that to mean, at least for this particular story, that she won't be all rational about her feelings for Booth and act as if nothing bothers her (despite what I've seen in the first season 6 promo, and the only one I could handle watching).

That's all the spoilers I'm going to give to you for my story. Just please read on and leave me a line or two on how you're enjoying it.

P.S. One more thing (and just one last spoiler for my story). Remember when Roxie came back into the picture for Angela, and Booth asked Brennan if she's ever been with a woman and she said no? Forget that ever happened. I'm changing that. A past lover of Brennan's, a woman no less, is introduced here. If that squicks you out…Don't read or don't flame.

P.P.S. Even as I write an entire story about what season 6 might bring us, I try and read as little as possible about the harlot Booth will be bringing back to DC. All I know is her name, the fact that she's blonde and a journalist.

Now, enough procrastination. Please go ahead, read and tell me if this was enough of a tearjerker because I sure as hell cried enough for two boxes of Kleenex writing it.

P.S. (again), I opened my iTunes as I wrote this, and was surprised at how many songs in there fit BB. I'll be writing the songs that inspired the chapter at the very beginning, so please give them a shot - I'm telling you, they're amazing and so uncannily fitting to the storylines here…I swear I didn't write the plot according to the songs. It just turned out that BB have a lot of songs written about them without them even realizing it.

I'll write out the entire playlist after the epilogue of this story, so check that out. I'll add more if I come across a song that fits.

**Disclaimer:** Hart Hanson owns Bones, not me.

*MUSIC*

Theme song for this story - Since You've Been Around by Rosie Thomas

Lie In the Sound by Trespassers William

Other Side of the World by KT Tunstall

* * *

"Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies or weariness, of withering, of tarnishing."

- Anais Nin.

* * *

_**May 2011**_

Temperance Brennan took in a deep breath as she sank down on a bench by the Reflecting Pool. The coffee cart was just a little ways away, and she was on her lookout, head turning this way and that every few seconds, just waiting for a glimpse of Booth.

His flight had landed hours ago, and she had wanted to greet him at the airport but they had made a pact: one year later, at the reflecting pool, by the coffee cart. She was going to keep up her end of the bargain.

_Calm down, Temperance_, she instructed herself silently, taking in deep breaths and closing her eyes momentarily. _He doesn't need to see you so flustered_.

When her eyes fluttered open again, Brennan stared out at the pool, her mind taking her back to her time in Indonesia.

The year apart had been…A learning experience for her, to put it lightly.

First had been her encounter with Dewi, whom she had a very life-changing experience with. Dewi had successfully transformed her way of thinking, in just the two weeks that they had known each other. Brennan was comfortably saying with certainty that she wanted everything that Dewi had to offer, and though Dewi wasn't available to her anymore, she would be looking for someone to share a similar experience with. And soon.

Secondly, while she had been in Indonesia, in the remote jungles as she led the dig that was meant to change the world - and yes. Yes, she had changed the world - Brennan had done a lot of thinking that hadn't pertained to the dig at all. In fact, instead of revolutionizing the world, Brennan had been revolutionizing her own world.

Dewi had helped her, most definitely, but what had helped the most was being so free. Being somewhere far from pressure and stress and the everyday hustle of her own life.

Brennan had thought of Booth, of their partnership, of their very first encounter and their very first kiss. She had thought of their moments that had occurred for five years, and she had thought of the night Booth had gambled on them.

And, finally, seven months into the dig, Brennan had come into one very shocking, very life-changing epiphany:

She was in love with Booth.

She wanted to be with Booth.

She had nothing to fear being in love with Booth, because he was Booth, and that meant that he was the one person in the entire world who wouldn't hurt her, wouldn't let her down.

She was going to do her best to live up to that standard so she could be his equal, his partner, in that love.

So now, twelve months after they had said their goodbyes for the year, Brennan was waiting, sitting on a bench by the coffee cart at the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool.

"Penny for your thoughts, Bones," she heard, and she started, jumping out of her skin. Her head whipped around to her left, her heart racing double-time, and her blue eyes caught sight of her partner, standing there with a big smile on his face, gazing at her in earnest.

Brennan jumped to her feet and was rushing at him before she'd had a chance to control herself and compartmentalize the overwhelming feeling of seeing him for the first time in twelve months. "Booth!" she slammed into him, her arms wrapped around his neck.

Booth grunted as Brennan rammed into him, but he only smiled wider and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her closer. Despite everything that had happened while he had been in Afghanistan, he had missed her so much. It wasn't like they had any contact at all during those twelve months. You spend five years with someone, you're bound to miss them when you're suddenly cut off from them.

"Gee, Bones, missed me?" he couldn't help but tease.

"Yes," she replied, her word muffled since her mouth was pressed against his shoulder.

Booth was a little taken aback by the candidness of her reply. _I've just been gone too long_, he assured himself. _I'd forgotten how blunt she gets_. "Well, I've missed you, too," he told her honestly, pulling back to look into her pretty blue eyes.

Brennan was taken aback by the look on his face - that happy, completely free-from-any-sort-of-torment look he was sporting. It wasn't that she was hoping for him to come back to DC morose and depressed, but it struck her as odd that he would be so happy.

Booth had always been a man willing to do anything for his country, but what he was asked to do always got to him. It always made him somber. She remembered him telling her about repenting for his sins seven years ago, and she knew that he still hadn't gotten over his job as a sniper.

This time around, he had gone to Afghanistan to train recruits to be cops in a war zone. It was different, but she still expected a certain sense of solemnity.

"What?" she asked, laughing a little as she gazed into his sparkling brown eyes. "You look so happy. What's with that look?"

To her surprise, Booth merely threw his head back and laughed, a carefree sound that filled her heart with warmth. "Can't a guy just be happy to be home, Bones?" he asked her, a coy smile on his lips as he stepped back from her embrace and moved next to her.

"Yes," she answered, smiling a little when she felt his arm wrap around her shoulders, the two of them walking side by side towards the coffee cart. "But I have a feeling there's a reason behind all of that happiness."

Booth grinned, unable to help himself as he thought of the reason. "A feeling?" he teased Brennan. "Since when are you all about your gut?"

Although she shrugged her shoulders lightly, and although there was a small smile on her lips as she answered, her tone and her words were completely serious. "A lot of things have changed since we last saw each other, Booth."

He nodded his head in agreement. Things have definitely changed. The last time he'd seen Brennan, he had been completely head over heels in love with her, his heart hurting so badly because she had been able to turn him down when she meant the world to him. And now…

"Yes, they have," he agreed.

They reached the coffee cart. The same guy was behind it, and he recognized them instantly. "Whoa, hey," the boy said - he couldn't have been older than twenty - surprise coloring his tone. "You guys haven't been around for a long time."

"A year," Brennan supplied. "I was off changing the world." Booth barked out a laugh at her words, squeezing her shoulders gently before dropping his arm. "And so was he," she added, surprising him completely.

He turned to give her a soft smile. "Thanks, Bones," he murmured. "That means a lot coming from you."

The barista nodded as though this all made sense to him. "Uh, so what can I get you guys?"

"Coffee, black, please," Brennan ordered.

"Mine with cream and two sugars," Booth added.

Coffees in hand, they strolled side by side away from the coffee cart. "So how was your trip, Bones?" he asked her, sipping at the hot beverage slowly. "You know, besides changing the world, did you have fun?"

Brennan grinned. "It was amazing," she confided. "I've made several…Life-altering decisions and I can't wait to share it with you."

Internally, she reveled in the sound of someone calling her 'Bones'. For months after she'd arrived in Maluku, her head had snapped up and looked around whenever someone had uttered the word 'bones'. The confusion would fade, and embarrassment would seep in, but the only one who ever really noticed and understood the reason for her reaction was Daisy Wicks. That wasn't really a good thing, but the overeager woman was easy enough to intimidate into keeping quiet about things.

Booth felt his lips curve into a smile. "Well, I can't wait to hear it," he assured her. "I have something pretty big to tell you, too. Why don't we go to the diner? Have some pie? God, I've missed pie from the diner…We can talk there."

Brennan laughed at his childish exuberance. "Sure," she agreed easily. "But I think I'll go for the salad instead. Much healthier."

Booth scoffed. "Please. I've been in combat training for a year," he reminded her. "Feel my guns."

She rolled her eyes at the cockiness of Seeley Booth. In a strange way, she had even missed that.

Della, the middle aged waitress who had been working at the diner ever since Brennan could remember, gasped and hugged the both of them when they entered, gushing about this and that. Brennan barely paid attention, only smiling politely and nodding at appropriate intervals. Finally, dabbing at her eyes, Della ushered Booth and Brennan to their usual seat. It was conveniently empty, and the ex-partners sunk down in their chairs opposite one another.

It was uncanny how they seemed like they had just picked off right where they left off, when really, everything had changed.

"So, Bones," Booth said, as he put aside his empty coffee cup. "Tell me about this life-altering thing that happened to you."

Brennan beamed at him, glad that he seemed so eager to hear what she had to say.

All they had talked about from the reflecting pool all the way to the diner were of her discoveries - she had kept it vague since she knew he'd lose interest if she kept babbling on about anthropology anyway - and his time in Afghanistan - _he_ had kept it vague because other than the 'big thing' he couldn't wait to tell her, he didn't want to discuss the horrors of war.

She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, nerves setting in once more.

Here she was, sitting opposite the man she was in love with, for anthropology's sake, about to bare her soul to him.

She opened her mouth, the speech she had prepared days ahead of time in an attempt to give herself the chance to reveal to him the epiphany she had come to in the most articulate manner possible, when her voice died in her throat.

Booth raised an eyebrow, seeing the scrunched look on her face that only meant one thing - she was nervous. "You're nervous," he stated. At the back of his mind, a small, almost dead part of him taunted 'even after a whole year apart, even after everything, you still know her like the back of your hand.' He ignored that and leaned forward, sliding his arms onto the table to give her a reassuring look. "Bones, you know you can tell me anything."

Brennan nodded. "I know," she answered his rhetorical question, making him smile. "I just…" she heaved a sigh.

She wanted to say it. It was right at the tip of her tongue. She found herself afraid, however, that this time, it would be her walking away with a broken heart. What then? Would she have to leave DC all over again? Would she have to go to another remote location, spend months away from home, from Booth, to try and get over him?

Brennan frowned as she noticed Booth moving his arm subtly, his gaze dropping on his watch for a second. "Do you have to be somewhere else?" she asked, masking her disappointment well.

Booth had the decency to look sheepish. "No, no," he shook his head. "We have all day, Bones. I just…There's something I need to tell you, too, and I'd rather tell you now before…"

He trailed off, and Brennan nodded, misinterpreting his meaning. "Of course. You should go first," she assured him.

Booth gave her a surprised look. "You sure?"

She nodded again. "It works out well," she said, smiling as she realized her words were true. "My revelation is a very big one. It would generate a very long discussion, I suspect. It's best for you to go ahead first."

Booth smiled his gratitude at her. "Okay, then," he agreed. Taking a deep breath, Booth ran a hand through his short hair. He thought of the perfect opening line to something like this, and images began to flood his mind, making his smile grow wider and wider until a chuckle burst forth from his lips.

Brennan shot him a confused smile. "Booth, I…Would you just tell me what it is already?" she asked in a tone reminiscent of Parker whining when he couldn't con Booth for an extra hour of TV time before bed. "I want to know."

Oh, she should've been careful what she wished.

Booth nodded, that ridiculously large grin still on his face as he leaned forward. She watched, mesmerized, as his eyes sparkled happily. "So, you know I was in Afghanistan," he said, beaming widely.

Brennan snorted. "Yes, Booth, I know," she rolled his eyes.

"Something happened to me there, Bones," he confessed to her, his voice low as though he was admitting something that was to be treated with utter reverence.

She raised her eyebrow, her lips parted and a 'go on' expression on her face, waiting to hear what it was.

"I fell in love."

Brennan's eyebrows shot to her hairline, the breath leaving her lungs in a whoosh.

She stared at him, unsure if this was a joke - a cruel, cruel joke - that was being played on her. But he was still smiling, and his eyes were still twinkling, and that warm expression that had made him look like a million bucks was still on his face - only this time, it wasn't directed at her.

"Hey, you're early!" she heard him say.

Brennan blinked away the tears that had accumulated in her eyes, composed herself and slid on the perfect, most neutral expression on her face. If there was one thing Brennan was good at that didn't involve her mind, it was putting on a beautiful poker face. It was something she had learned in foster care, and it was something she had brought with her to her adult life.

She employed it well as she looked up to see Booth standing up from his seat, embracing the lovely woman who had strode in.

Brennan eyed her, taking her all in. The woman wore a pair of jeans and one of those fashionable shirts that Angela had once tried to get Brennan to wear, along with a simple coat, but she looked like she could have been walking down the runway in Milan. She was tall, like a model. She was blonde, of course, with gorgeous wavy locks falling down her back. Her eyes were hazel, and the twinkle in them matched the one in Booth. She had pretty, delicate features.

"Yeah, I know," the woman replied, grinning widely as she accepted a kiss from Booth, the two of them breaking apart with a 'smack' and warm chuckles. "I hope that's okay."

The woman turned her attention to Brennan, a beautiful smile on her full lips. "Hi, you must be Dr. Brennan," she said. Brennan stood up to greet her as well, perhaps less enthusiastically than Booth had. "I'm Hannah Burley."

Brennan gave 'Hannah Burley' a warm, welcoming smile and shook her hand graciously. "It's very nice to meet you, Hannah," she said, even as her heart pounded so painfully in her throat.

"Seeley told me a lot about you, and the work the two of you did before he went to Afghanistan," Hannah told Brennan, smiling at Booth as he helped her into her seat before dropping into his own chair next to hers.

Brennan watched the interaction, her mind working a mile a minute. "Well, I can't say the same for you," she continued to smile as though her heart didn't feel like it was being torn from her body at the moment. "Booth had just started to tell me that he'd fallen in love when you came in."

A pretty blush rose to Hannah's porcelain cheeks. "Oh, is that so?" she asked, her tone coy as she gazed sideways at Booth.

Booth returned the loving look Hannah sent his way, leaning in to brush a kiss to her warm cheek. "Yes," he murmured, tenderly tucking a lock of her golden hair behind her ear. "You all settled in, babe?"

Hannah nodded. "You know I have so little," she shrugged.

Brennan's brows furrowed together. "I don't understand," she admitted.

Hannah and Booth both turned to look at her the same time. Brennan noted, with hurt that she concealed completely, that both of them looked as though they were surprised to see her sitting opposite them. As though they had forgotten she was there at all. As though _he_ had forgotten she was there.

"Hannah lived in New York City before she went to Afghanistan," Booth explained to Brennan. "Since we didn't want to have a long distance relationship, Hannah decided to come live with me here in DC."

Brennan nodded. "That sounds logical," she said even as her stomach dropped at the thought of Booth getting a happily ever after with someone else. "It's not like Booth could move to NYC - he has Parker." She noted with sadness that Hannah didn't seem like she was confused by the name - Booth had clearly told her about his son, the most precious thing in his life.

Hannah beamed at Booth, taking his hand and entwining it with hers. "I don't want him to uproot his life, anyway," she said softly. "He's got more here than I had back in NYC. It was a simple decision."

Brennan took a bite of her salad, hoping that swallowing it would help to soothe her throat which had tighten so painfully that it was becoming hard to breathe.

"So, tell me how you two met," she said, a bright smile on her face as though she was perfectly happy for him.

Temperance Brennan sat there, staring at the man she was in love with and the woman he was in love with, listening to him recount every last detail of how he had met the amazing Hannah Burley and how he had fallen for her so completely, trying her hardest to ignore the way she wanted to badly to weep.

She learned about how Hannah was a journalist, who had gone to Afghanistan to report on the war coverage. She learned about how they had met at Booth's unit's base camp, where Hannah had been interviewing the recruiters. She learned about how Booth had asked Hannah to join him at the campfire and how they'd talked all night, well into morning. She learned about how they fell in love with each other in the span of one weekend, five months ago.

"That's quite a story," Brennan said, as Booth and Hannah finished retelling the events of their lives meshing together. She shook her head and smile as though she was amused by him, "Only _you_, Seeley Booth, would go to a war zone and fall in love…I'm very happy for you."

Booth gave Brennan a warm smile. She knew better, though, than to assume that that warmth was meant for her. She knew better now.

It had been strange for her to see him like that earlier by the reflecting pool - she had never seen him in love before. Not when it wasn't with her. In all the seven years they'd known each other, this was the one time he had been truly happy, and she knew it wasn't because of her.

"Thanks, Bones," Booth exhaled, leaning back in his seat, one arm draped over the back of Hannah's chair. He frowned as he realized that, as he and his girlfriend had babbled on about their love story, Brennan still hadn't had a chance to tell him about her big news. "So, what's your big news?"

Brennan's head snapped up and she stared at Booth, her entire body frozen. "What?"

"Your big news?" Booth prompted. "You know, you said it was life-altering."

Brennan fixed her gaze on the subject of her epiphany, a certain lightheartedness about him, with the subject of his love sitting right next to him.

Irony was a pain and karma was a bitch.

The words from her 'I-went-to-Maluku-and-discovered-I'm-in-love-with-you' speech floated around in her head repeatedly, taunting her.

Booth was still waiting, Hannah stealing fries off his plate as she, too, gazed at the quirky anthropologist, wondering if she should leave the partners alone to speak - maybe Brennan wasn't comfortable sharing something that was life-altering and so clearly personal with her around. After all, she was a stranger to Brennan.

Before she could turn to Booth and suggest she leave the two alone, however, Brennan had opened her mouth and blurted out the only thing she could think of that would've met the standard of 'life-altering'.

"I almost adopted a child in Indonesia."

Booth's jaw dropped and even Hannah stared. "Whoa, seriously?" Booth muttered, looking flabbergasted. "You were gonna be the Angelina Jolie of DC?"

Brennan frowned at him. "I don't know what that means," she told him blankly.

Hannah laughed slightly, "You're kidding…" She trailed off, her laughter dying when she realized that Brennan wasn't joking. "Oh. Well…Um…"

Booth interrupted, throwing Hannah a reassuring smile. No one really knew how to deal with Brennan at first meeting. Lord only knew _he_ hadn't. "What happened?"

Brennan shrugged. "I met this little girl…" Her smile grew soft as she remembered Dewi. For a moment, just a moment, the pain she was feeling due to Hannah's presence faded into the background, leaving only a certain joy she wanted desperately to hold onto. "Her name is Dewi. She was orphaned at a very young age and had been raised by neighbors her whole life. It wasn't a stable environment, and I…Well, Dewi is a very…She's a very beautiful child."

Brennan dropped her gaze to her salad, poking at the vegetables with her fork. "I wanted to adopt her," she admitted in a low voice. "But I was…I guess I was afraid. It was very fifty-fifty for me, and in the end…I mean, I couldn't adopt her then decide I didn't want her."

She shook her head, dropping her fork and pushing the salad away, her appetite completely gone, "I find that I'm warring with myself to hop back on a flight to Indonesia to take her back with me."

Booth could only stare at his partner. _Ex-partner_, his mind silently reminded him, making him wince.

It hadn't been a secret that Brennan had wanted a child before - it was obvious, at least to him, that she had been very taken with Andy a few years back. Then there was that bizarre experience where she had asked him for his 'stuff' to get a child that was half hers, half him. But that desire had faded, or so he'd thought.

After all, she had never once mentioned it again after his surgery.

He'd catch her smiling at the sight of an adorable child once in a while, but most women did that, and his partner wasn't immune to the charms of little children, even before she'd expressed desire to have one of her own - look at how well she'd taken to Parker the first year of their partnership.

"Wow," he breathed, finding himself smiling at the sight of the wistful smile she wore as she spoke of 'Dewi'. "That is huge, Bones."

He thought he saw her grimace, but he couldn't be too sure - it was gone far too fast for him to catch.

Brennan simply nodded at his words, swallowing hard as her throat had gone completely dry now. "I decided that, if after a few months back here, I still decide on adopting a child…" she trailed off meaningfully.

Booth's eyes widened into large saucers. "You're going to go back to Indonesia and adopt Dewi?"

Brennan shook her head, laughing softly. "No, no…I mean, I only knew Dewi for two weeks, and she…Well, she changed my life," Brennan admitted honestly, running a hand through her hair. "She's a sweet child, but I observed her with her village and I found that she…Loves it there."

Her face fell minimally as she thought of the little girl, barely four years old, running around with the other children in the village, being loved by every member of her community. "I couldn't take her away from all of that," she sighed. "So I wrote a check, to support not only Dewi but the village, as well. I have received word from the chief that I will be getting updates on Dewi's life as she grows, and I would probably go back to visit her someday. But Dewi belongs in Indonesia, with the people her parents entrusted her to."

"So you're going to adopt here," Hannah clarified, chancing a part in the conversation she had been right about - too personal to have in the company of someone you had met just barely a half hour ago.

Brennan's eyes flickered to Hannah's, electrifying blue and bright hazel meeting, and she nodded. "Yes," she confirmed. "_If_ I still desire a child by that time."

She knew she would. The decision to have a child of her own hadn't been made rashly. It had been a well thought out conclusion that had been derived from countless of sleepless nights thinking of Dewi, of Andy, of the child she had imagined herself having with Booth.

_Maybe if I'd broached the subject again a few months after his surgery_, Brennan found herself thinking. _Maybe _we_ would be together right now, and he would've never left for Afghanistan, and met Hannah_.

Della came by the table once more, eyeing Hannah curiously and being very surprised when she was introduced as Booth's girlfriend. Brennan didn't miss the fleeting, sympathetic look Della had thrown her way. She absolutely hated it.

"I'm going to take my evals on Friday," Booth informed her as the three of them sat and ate. Well, Brennan pretended to eat, pushing her food around her plate to make it seem like she'd made a dent. Her appetite hadn't returned and the nausea she had felt the moment Booth had told her he'd fallen in love had returned full force. "If everything goes according to plan, I'll be back at work on Monday."

Brennan nodded. "I'm taking the weekend off, to visit my dad and Russ, but I'll be back on Monday, as well," she said, the two of them eyeing each other with small smiles on their faces.

"You still wanna catch murderers with me?" Booth asked her, waggling his eyebrow ridiculously.

Brennan rolled her eyes, but she nodded anyway. "Yes, of course," she replied, sounding a little defensive.

He shrugged. "Okay. It's just…Before you left…You were all 'I need space', and now…" he trailed off, unsure what had brought this on.

Brennan took a sip of her coffee. "I did get my space, Booth," she reminded him. "A whole year's worth. I'm good now. We'll get right back to work on Monday, everything will be fine."

Booth grinned at her. "That's the spirit, Bones!" he enthused. "You know, for a moment there, I was sorta worried you wouldn't want-"

Whatever her soon-to-be-partner-again was going to say was cut off when his cell phone vibrated, moving slightly on the table. Booth snatched it up and answered it immediately upon looking at the caller ID. "Hey, bub! Yeah, I'm real excited to see you, too! Make sure you pack an overnight bag, okay? Your mom said you could stay over. Alright! Yeah…Hey, I've got something important to tell you when we see each other later. No, it's nothing bad…No, I'm not leaving again. It's a very good thing, actually…Yeah, okay, bub. I'll let you go. See you later, Parks. Bye."

Brennan eyed Booth with surprise as he ended the call, a goofy smile on his face. "You haven't met up with Parker yet?"

Instead of Booth answering, however, it was Hannah who did. "No, Parker is still in school," Hannah said, speaking with such familiarity that it was as if she had actually met the ten year old before. "We'll be picking him up and taking him out for dinner later."

Brennan smiled. "That sounds nice," she managed to choke.

Booth grinned. "We gotta get going, babe," he said to Hannah, downing the remaining of his coffee and placing his empty mug down on the table. "We've gotta get some things for the house before picking Parker up."

Hannah nodded, standing up along with Booth. Brennan stood as well. "It was really nice meeting you, Dr. Brennan," Hannah said sincerely, smiling widely at Brennan.

Brennan took the offered hand, shaking it gently. "You, too," she answered as politely as she could. "Have fun with Parker later."

Booth pressed a swift kiss to Brennan's cheek, and Brennan noted that Hannah's eyes didn't even flash with the tiniest bit of jealousy. "See ya Monday, Bones," he said cheerfully. "C'mon, babe," he turned to Hannah, leading her away from the table.

Brennan watched, the smile on her face getting more and more painful to keep in place, as Booth placed one hand on the small of Hannah's back and led her towards the diner's exit.

Once Booth and Hannah were out of the diner, Brennan sunk back down on her chair. She stared at the space where her partner and his girlfriend had just sat, two empty cups of coffee and one plate of fries between them.

The incredulity of what she had just found out an hour ago hadn't quite disappeared, the shock still omnipotent.

"Hon?" she felt someone shaking her by the shoulder. Brennan blinked and looked up blankly, seeing Della by the table. She was still wearing that sympathetic look on her face. "You want something else, hon?"

"No," she answered immediately, and winced when her voice cracked. Brennan cleared her throat and gave Della a forced smile. "Thank you. But I have to get going."

"Of course, hon."

Brennan stood from her seat, dropping a suitable amount of money to cover the price of the food she had ordered and barely touched and a nice tip for Della. She grabbed her coat and put it on as she made her way to the door.

She was surprised to find, as she stepped outside the diner, that the sky had darkened considerably. Apparently, she had sat there, staring at Booth's empty seat, for quite some time.

Zipping up her coat, Brennan wrapped her arms around her middle as she walked down the sidewalk away from the diner.

She bowed her head, feeling her throat closing up all over again. This time, as the tears welled in her eyes, she allowed them to spill over onto her cheeks, biting her lower lip as hard as she could without drawing blood to stifle the sobs that threatened to escape her mouth.

* * *

"One of the hardest things in life is watching the person you love, love someone else."

- Unknown.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** Hart Hanson owns Bones, not me.

*MUSIC*

Fade Into You by Mazzy Star

Don't Walk Away by Bethany Joy Galeotti

Sailed On by Landon Pigg

* * *

"You know it's love when all you want is that person to be happy, even if you're not part of their happiness."

- Julia Roberts.

* * *

_**May 2011**_

"Sweetie!" Brennan heard, right before she was enveloped in warm flesh and soft smell that was unmistakably Angela's. "I've missed you so much!"

Brennan chuckled as she pulled away from her best friend. "I've missed you too," she admitted freely.

Angela raised an eyebrow but didn't comment. Her large smile slipped slightly as she noticed the bones laid out on the table in front of Brennan. "Well, these are obviously old," she said dryly. "You came to work early to work on limbo cases?"

Brennan, hands gloved and hair pulled back with a hair tie, turned her attention back to the remains in question. "Yes," she replied. "I've missed doing that."

Angela rolled her eyes. "You were just in Maluku doing just that," she pointed out.

"But not here," Brennan gestured towards the lab. "I meant I've missed being back here, working at the lab." She sighed, shaking her head. "I don't know why I missed it so much."

"Because it's home, sweetie," Angela supplied, in her all-knowing tone. Changing the subject swiftly, she said, "Okay, so I want to hear all about your trip - the abridged version, of course - and I'm gonna gush about Paris for days, but first, tell me…Have you seen Agent Studly yet?"

Brennan ignored the leery smile on Angela's face, bending down to take a closer look at the fracture on the skull of the bones on the table. "Yes," she murmured in the monotone voice she reserved for either saying the observations she had made about human remains out loud, or for moments when things were becoming too personal for her liking. "I saw him and Hannah just yesterday."

Angela's heart skipped a beat when Brennan mentioned 'Hannah'. _Oh, no. Please, not…Booth didn't get a girlfriend, did he? He couldn't have. He was in Afghanistan!_ "Hannah?"

Brennan didn't move her eyes from the remains, "Yes, his girlfriend."

Angela gasped, and her knees actually grew weak. She spotted one of those silver stools that were sometimes left on the platform, grabbing it and placing it close enough to the autopsy table that she could carry on a conversation with Brennan without having to raise her voice, but far enough away that she wouldn't interrupt Brennan's work physically.

"His girlfriend?" she questioned, her voice a whisper. Her heart was pounding furiously, breaking more than just a little for her best friend. "Oh, Bren…I'm so sorry."

"For what?" Brennan asked, straightening up to look at Angela.

"For Booth, going to Afghanistan and bringing home a two-bit tramp," she clarified, growling out the words. A fire flared in her dark eyes - things had gotten so close, so close to where they were supposed to be. Just a year ago. But then everything got majorly screwed up, the partners both ran in opposite directions, and now…

Brennan noted the tears that had welled up in her best friend's eyes. "Why? Are _you_ in love with Booth?" she asked innocently.

Angela scowled at Brennan. "No, hon, I'm talking about _you_," she said, exasperatedly.

Brennan nodded her head, understanding, "Well, I'll be fine," she assured her friend. "Eventually I'll move on, just like Booth has."

Angela's jaw dropped at Brennan's might-as-well-be admission. She was staring so dazedly at Brennan that she didn't notice when the alarm at the bottom of the steps beep or when Cam stepped up right next to her.

"Angela, I didn't see you come in - it's really good to have you back…" Cam trailed off, her smile slipping into a frown as she noticed that the artist was just simply staring at Dr. Brennan. She reached out a hand and tentatively shook Angela's shoulders. "Angela? Angela, what's…Is everything okay?"

Angela snapped out of her shock state, her head swiveling to Cam in slow motion. "Brennan just admitted to being in love with Booth!" she hissed in a low voice, as though this was something classified that shouldn't be heard by the wrong ears.

Cam's eyebrows rose up to her hairline. "Whoa," she muttered, a smile flitting onto her pretty face. "Really? Wow, what did they do to you in Indonesia?"

Brennan frowned at the both of them. "What? Nothing. Who did what?" She shook her head, confusing herself. "Listen, it's not a big deal, Angela-"

"Not a big deal?" Angela repeated, jumping to her feet. "Not a big deal!" her voice rose an octave. She was pretty much shrieking now, in the quietest voice she could manage. "Brennan, you're there. You're finally there, you're in love and you're admitting it but Booth's all…And he's in love, and that's not a good thing!"

Cam was suddenly very confused. "Wait - it's not a good thing that Booth and Brennan are in love with each other?" she asked, frowning. "I thought this was what we've all been waiting for."

Angela nodded, eyes half crazed. "Yeah, and it would be awesome, but Booth isn't in love with Brennan," she clarified.

Cam's jaw dropped, her dark eyes wide. "Oh, no," she murmured.

"-he's in love with some no good, home wrecking, 'jump-on-any-male-within-spitting-distance' _slut_!"

Brennan gaped at her best friend with an incredulous expression on her face. "_Angela_!" she gasped, shocked. "Now, really. What is with all the name calling? You've never even met Hannah before. I have, and frankly, I think she's very nice, very beautiful…Blonde. Definitely perfect for Booth."

The words burned her tongue, and she dropped her gaze back to the remains on the table, her mind automatically compartmentalizing as soon as she began cataloging the marks on the scapula.

She shook her head at her friend's erratic behavior, "Are you sure you're not in love with Booth, because you're exhibiting a very angry behavior right now, at the mere mention of his girlfriend."

Angela glared at Brennan. "I'm not in love with Booth. I'm being angry for you, the woman who's actually in love with Booth, because you're taking this all so calmly!" she snapped, not meaning to take it out on Brennan. "How can you be so okay with all of this?"

Brennan shrugged, "I think it's a good thing that Booth found Hannah."

Angela snorted. "Bull."

Brennan lifted an eyebrow, throwing a stern look in Angela's way. "You're being unreasonable, Angela," she said, in a way a mother would to a stubborn child. "Booth is happy. I think we should all be happy for him."

"I would, if he were happy with you," Angela insisted with her arms crossed over her chest, lips formed into the perfect scowl.

Cam, from her spot on Angela's vacated chair, took in a shaky breath. _Who would've thought?_ Cam mused to herself. _Who would've thought this was how things would turn out?_ "Well, I'll be on both sides," she compromised out loud. "I'll be on both of your sides. Booth's and yours," she assured Brennan.

Brennan furrowed her eyebrows together in confusion. "Well, thank you, Cam, but there are no sides," she said.

Angela opened her mouth, preferably to say something else to shake Brennan out of this ridiculous 'I'm okay with everything' thing she had going on, when they heard a very distinctive, "Hey, guys!"

Brennan, relieved that she wouldn't have to hear more from Angela about how and she and Booth were meant to be together - because it was painful enough hearing her own thoughts on the matter - turned to give her partner a fleeting smile. "Hey, Booth," she said, returning to her cadaver. "Back on the job?"

Booth nodded, grinning wildly at her as he went over to greet Cam and Angela (who barely, reluctantly, allowed him a brush of the lips to the cheek before moving away from him, still angry) with hugs and kisses on the cheek. "Yeah, and just in time, too - there's a body down in Arlington," he informed her. "Ready to go?"

Brennan sighed, gazing despondently at the remains of the war hero on the table. "Oh," she pouted. "Well, I guess…"

Booth, noticing the look she was giving the old skeleton, rolled his eyes. "Come on, Bones," he urged. "We've been over this before, Bones. Fresh body first, old bones later."

Brennan gave him a look. "Don't patronize me, Booth," she snarked, snapping off her gloves. "Cam, will you have one of the interns take care of this for me?" she nodded towards the bones as she moved to the small rubbish bin by the steps to discard her gloves.

Cam nodded. "Of course, Dr. Brennan," she assured the anthropologist. "And, may I just say, that the interns aren't the only ones eager to be working with you once more."

Brennan flashed her a cheeky grin. "What happened to working _for_ me?" she teased.

Cam, slightly surprised by the woman's joking - because that rarely, if ever, happened and it had never been with her before - simply laughed. "I blame it on sentimentality," she shrugged. "Won't happen again."

"Uh-huh," Brennan said in a disbelieving tone, a small smile on her lips.

Angela, sulking in the corner, shook her head slightly, still incredibly upset over this. _This is all wrong_, she huffed silently. _Booth should be over there, holding Brennan, tempting her to go out on the field with kisses and loving words. Brennan should not be pretending she's fine and happy and that all is right with her world when I know it's just been shattered. This is just…It's all wrong_.

Brennan gave Booth a brief look. "I'm just going to grab my kit," she informed him. "I'll be right back."

He nodded, smiling as she left. Turning back to the other two women, he flashed them both a large, carefree smile. _Well, Brennan was right - he is happy_, Cam noted with equal parts joy and sadness.

"So, ladies - how was your year?" Booth asked, warm, sparkling brown eyes flickering between Cam and Angela.

Angela threw him a scathing look and turned on her heel, storming away from him and making her way swiftly down the platform stairs. _I need to cry_, she sighed to herself as she made her way to her office.

Booth reeled his head back, startled by Angela's reaction to him. "Whoa," he muttered, turning to Cam with a bewildered expression on his face. The sort-of sympathetic look she was giving him further fueled his confusion. "What the hell was that all about?" he asked, placing his hands on the edges of the table and leaning against it.

Cam sighed, standing up from her seat to walk over to the autopsy table, her arms folded across her chest. "She's angry about Hannah," she confided, speaking slowly so that she wouldn't accidentally reveal anything about Brennan's feelings.

Booth raised his eyebrow, though Cam didn't miss the way a smile slowly grew on his face just at the mention of Hannah's name. "Angry?" he shook his head. "Why?"

Cam shrugged. "She sorta thought that…I mean…Even I thought that once you and Dr. Brennan came back here, you guys would finally be together," she said in the most delicate way possible. "I guess Angela was just counting on it more than the rest of us."

Booth blinked at Cam, once, twice, three times. "Cam…That…I put that behind me," he said, his voice low.

"Oh, I know," she assured him. "I know, big guy. And I'm happy for you."

"Is, uh, is _she_?" he asked, his head turning slightly to throw a look over his shoulder in the direction of Brennan's office.

Cam smiled, trying her best to hide the sadness she felt for the lonely anthropologist. "Yeah, big man, she is," she replied softly. "She told Angela not to be all crazy about this. That you're happy so we should be, too."

Booth nodded, unable to explain the slight tinge of disappointment he'd felt at Cam's words even if he tried. "Oh, that's good," he said, taking in a deep breath and exhaling.

Cam eyed him curiously, sensing that something wasn't quite right. But Booth was already smiling again, and that odd look that had flashed over his face was gone, replaced by only happiness. "You know, she seems to like Hannah," she couldn't help but add.

Booth nodded again. "Yeah, the two of them got along really well the other day," he beamed. "I think they could really grow to like each other. You know, become friends."

"And you want that?"

"Well, yeah," he replied, as though this was obvious. "Bones is a very important part of my life, and now so is Hannah. It'd be great if they could be friends."

_At the rate she's going trying to make sure you're happily oblivious to her heart, she might just actually become Hannah's new BFF_, Cam thought sarcastically.

"Booth!" Brennan's voice called out. They turned to see her, coat on and kit in hand. "I'm ready. Let's go."

Booth nodded, walking over to Cam to give her another kiss on the cheek. "It's good to see you again, Camille," he said with a smile.

"You, too, Seeley."

"Don't call me Seeley."

"Don't call me Camille."

The two old friends shared a warm smile. "Oh, I've missed that," Cam admitted.

Booth chuckled, pressed another kiss to her cheek, and whistled as he walked away to join Brennan.

Cam watched the two of them walking away, her eyes trained on the way they moved. They were standing right next to each other, but there was a certain movement, a certain way in which Brennan, angled slightly towards Brennan, seemed to be making sure she was slightly apart from Booth, and how Booth, walking in a straight line, kept his hand by his side instead of on the small of her back like he used to.

_Things were going to get a whole lot worse before they get better_, Cam observed astutely. If_ they get any better_.

* * *

"You're sure your brother won't mind me tagging along?" Hannah asked Booth for the thousandth time in the past two hours.

Booth, Hannah and Parker were on their way to Jared's and Padme's apartment. Jared, who had married Padme, was now the proud father of five month old Krishna Madeline Booth. Since 'everyone' was back in DC, the new parents had thought it was only fitting to invite them over for dinner and drinks.

"Yes, I'm sure," Booth chuckled. "Babe, don't be so nervous. It'll be fine."

Parker, sitting in the backseat, rolled his eyes, but made sure his father didn't see.

He wasn't all that keen on his father dating this woman. He didn't know her, but she'd moved into their place. He had never met her before and he was having 'family dinners' with her every night. He had wanted time alone with his father the first time he had seen his dad for the first time in a year, and instead he had to share him with her the whole time.

If he would've picked anyone for his dad, it would be Brennan. She was nice and cool and she never lied whenever she answered his questions - though, sometimes, like when she told him all about where the 'myth of the Easter bunny' really came from, he had to lie to his parents and just went along with the kid-friendly version -and she was pretty. He knew her, he liked her, she had a pretty awesome dad who not only knew his science experiments, but had been in prison before.

Parker had wanted his dad to go to Afghanistan, to save lives. But he had expected everything to be the same when he returned but everything had changed so much.

"Is Bones going to be there?" he piped up from the backseat, knowing he wouldn't get in trouble because he wasn't interrupting the adults when they were speaking. "She is, isn't she? 'cuz I brought a whole bunch of stuff for her to see."

He hadn't seen Brennan in a year, too. She had been in some jungle in Indonesia. He'd checked where it was on the internet, and found it to be in Asia. It was a pretty long way away, and his mom had said that where she was could be dangerous. So, every night, when he prayed for his dad, he prayed for Brennan, too.

Booth chuckled, his eyes flickering to the rearview mirror to catch a brief glimpse of his son before focusing on the road again. "Yeah, bub, I invited her and she said she'd come," he assured his son. "I don't know if she has other plans last minute but…"

Parker shook his head. "No, she'll be there," he stated resolutely. "Bones doesn't lie."

Booth nodded. "Yeah, that's true. She doesn't lie," he agreed.

"What did you bring her, Parker?" Hannah asked, determined to bond with the son of the man she loved. She didn't think they'd made a lot of headway over the past week, but it had been such a short time. She'd just have to be patient.

Parker sighed, knowing he would most definitely be in trouble if he ignored her. "Just some of my graded schoolwork," he answered vaguely. "I brought the ones I got really high scores on, so she can see. And the first place ribbon I got for the science fair. She's gonna _love_ that!"

Booth grinned, just imagining the look on Brennan's face when she saw Parker's first place ribbon. "Yeah, that's probably true," he chortled.

"Did you think my essay was good, dad?" Parker asked again. The essay he'd written in English class had been one of the many papers he'd brought along with him. He had gotten the highest score in the entire grade for that one, and Ms. Jameson, his teacher, had even submitted it for an essay competition. He'd won second place, but the guy who beat him was in an older grade, so Parker wasn't all that disappointed.

Booth nodded. "It was pretty awesome, bub," he assured his son. "You want her to read that, huh?"

"Yeah. I did this one all on my own, so I'm pretty happy about it," he said, grinning excitedly. "Dad, can't you drive any faster?"

"Not without breaking the speed limit."

Parker sighed, slumping back against his seat and glancing at his watch impatiently. "What if she's already there?"

"She'll still be there when we get there. Dinner doesn't even start for an hour."

Parker groaned at his dad's words, but kept quiet after that, just sneaking glances at his watch as though this would somehow speed time up. Or his dad's driving.

"You know…I'm a journalist," Hannah stated unnecessarily, turning around in her seat to face Parker. "I'm pretty great at English class. Can I read your paper, too?"

Parker gave her an apologetic smile. "You can," he agreed. "After Bones. I just…I've been waiting for her to read it for months. I just want her to read it first, after mom and dad."

Hannah nodded understandingly. "Sure, of course," she smiled, trying not to show how disappointed she was. All Booth's son had ever talked about, when they weren't talking about Booth's year away and what had happened for Parker during that time, was 'Bones'. Hannah was starting to feel a little unsure about her place in Parker's life and, by extension, Booth's life.

"Seeley! Hey, good to see you, man!" Jared greeted his brother with a large smile and a brotherly hug. "Hey, little man," he greeted, bumping fists with Parker. He had seen Parker continually over the year. Sometimes, he and Padme would take him for the day or for the weekend when Rebecca was too busy or had a business meeting she couldn't get out of.

"Hey, Uncle Jared," Parker grinned. "Is Bones here yet?"

Jared laughed, ruffling Parker's blonde mop. He knew just how excited Parker was to see Brennan again - he and Padme had been on the receiving end of several long chats about how he couldn't wait to 'show Bones this essay' or 'tell Bones about the trip to the Jeffersonian whatchamacallit exhibit'.

"No, not yet, buddy," he smiled at the disappointed frown on Parker's face as he ran through the door and plopped down on the couch. "She'll be here soon, though."

Jared turned back to face his brother, finally able to mask his surprise at the sight of the blonde woman his older brother had his arm around. "So, Seel…Who is this?" he asked, closing the door behind Booth and Hannah as they stepped into the apartment.

Booth, positively glowing with happiness, squeezed Hannah around the waist as he introduced her to his brother. "This is Hannah Burley," he said. "Hannah, my brother Jared. We met in Afghanistan."

Hannah, with a smile that hid how anxious she was, held out her hand confidently. "It's a pleasure to meet you," she said courteously. "I've heard a lot about you and Padme."

Jared nodded and smiled, taking her hand. "Oh, well, good," he said a little awkwardly. "I don't know anything about you, though…Seeley never mentioned you in any of his letters."

Booth chuckled, shucking off his coat and helping Hannah with hers. "Yeah, well, I wanted it to be a surprise," he shrugged. "So, y'know, _surprise_."

Jared rolled his eyes, opening his mouth to retort, when his wife's voice called out to him. "Jared, can you watch over Krish for a little…" she trailed off, stopping in the middle of the living room as she caught sight of the blonde woman she was unfamiliar with. "Oh. Hi."

Jared stepped away from Booth and Hannah, his arms outstretched as he lifted baby Krishna from her mother's arms. "Hi, princess," he cooed, cuddling the baby close with a large, goofy smile on his face.

Parker, who had seen the baby too many times for his liking, merely rolled his eyes, whipping out his DS while he waited for Brennan to show up.

Padme, her arms free, extended a hand to shake Hannah's. "I'm Padme, Jared's wife," she introduced herself, smiling uncertainly. Her eyes widened when she noticed Booth wrapping his arm around the blonde woman's waist.

"I'm Hannah Burley, Seeley's girlfriend," Hannah returned the greeting, smiling sweetly.

Padme's eyebrows rose. "Oh, wow," she murmured. "Well, that's…Great."

"I hope I'm not intruding," Hannah continued, a small frown on her face. "I thought this was more of a family-and-friends gathering, and I wanted to sit it out. But Seeley wouldn't take no for an answer."

Her voice had turned soft as she spoke the last part, turning her head to give Booth a playfully chiding look.

Booth chuckled warmly, leaning in to press a kiss to Hannah's lips. "Well, you're a part of that now," he insisted. "And, besides, I want them all to get a chance to know you." Seeing the still dubious look on her face, he grasped her chin in his hand and gently tilted her head up. "They're gonna love you, Han, don't worry."

Padme blinked a few times, sharing a look with her husband, before taking Booth by the arm. "Why don't you and, uh, Hannah get comfortable on the couch? The others should be arriving soon," she said, like a good host.

Angela, Hodgins and Cam arrived not long after, bearing wine, dessert and gifts for the baby. Angela, especially, had gone overboard. She'd been ecstatic to learn of the baby and had put together a very elaborate baby basket that was half her size. Brennan had chipped in, going shopping with Angela the day before to pick out the cutest things they could find. It stood on the coffee table, half opened - there had been far too many things inside for Padme to go through all at one go, and she didn't want to turn this into a second baby shower.

"Where's Bones?" Parker asked, exhaling loudly and rolling his eyes as everyone fawned over the baby.

Angela chuckled, giving Parker an affectionate smile even as she gently ran a finger down Krishna's tummy. They had found that Krishna loved to be held - by her parents. Anyone else to come within spitting distance of her and she would scream. She enjoyed everyone looking at her, however, and would start crying if no one paid her any mind. Jared had teasingly said that Krishna craved attention.

"She'll be here, mini Booth," she assured him. "She just had a conference call that ran late." Shaking her head at her friend's work ethics, she added, "I told her not to get so caught up that she misses this party."

Parker stared worriedly at Angela. "You mean she might not come?" he sounded positively upset by that.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry," Cam chimed in, patting Parker on the back. "She's got a couple of things for you, too."

Parker's eyes lit up. "Really!" he gushed, excited. Brennan had taken to bringing him back a few trinkets here and there whenever she went on her trips. It never failed to impress him, no matter what she brought back. He called her trips 'adventures' and was pleased that he was able to get something from those adventures.

Cam nodded. "Yeah. She'll be here."

Angela, noticing that Krishna seemed like she had calmed down enough to give holding a try, gave a start. "Oh, I think we should try again," she gushed.

Padme shook her head. "You just won't give up, will you?" she teased Angela.

Cam looked to Hannah, who was sitting next to Booth looking very out of place as she was surrounded by people she didn't know, said gently, "Hannah, why don't you give it a go?"

Angela shot Cam a glare, but Cam ignored her. "The rest of us tried, so maybe she'll warm up to you instead."

Hannah looked a little apprehensive but stood up anyway. "Okay, but if she starts wailing…"

Jared waved his hand dismissively. "If she does, one of us will take her and she'll calm right down," he gestured towards himself and Padme. "Don't worry, just go ahead. Give it a shot."

Hannah nodded, a little more confident. After all - the rest of them had all tried and failed, anyway. If the baby liked her, then good. If she didn't, then she was just one of the crowd. Nothing to be embarrassed about.

With an encouraging smile from Booth, Hannah stepped forward, smiling at the baby in her bassinet. "Hi, baby," she greeted softly, reaching into the pink bassinet to take hold of Krishna.

The moment Hannah's hands slipped inside the bassinet, however, Krishna let out a huge wail, followed by flailing fists and an all-out sobbing, with tears and everything.

"Oh, oh, sorry," Hannah apologized sheepishly, standing back so Padme can take hold of her.

Padme merely chuckled, bouncing the upset baby in her arms. "No, it's okay…Hannah," it was still strange to her to have this woman around. Ever since the first time she had met Temperance Brennan, she'd known that she and Booth would be together. Having Hannah around was so bizarre on so many levels. If she hadn't been told earlier that Brennan had already met Hannah, she would be worried about the anthropologist's reaction to the blonde. "She's like that with everyone. I haven't met one person she could warm up to outside the two of us."

Jared nodded his head in agreement. "She wouldn't even let Padme's family hold her," he confided. "They were upset, but I found that funny."

"Pops?" Booth asked, curious.

Jared shrugged. "Pops is Pops. He's different," was his reply. Booth could only nod, agreeing.

There was a knock at the door, and Parker immediately jumped up from his seat between the arm of the couch and Angela. "I'll get it!" he shouted, running for the door and swinging it open.

If it weren't for the fact that there were so many of them right there within a few feet from the door, Booth would've chided his son for answering it without an adult present or without checking to see who it was. He let it go this time, knowing Parker was just excited to see Brennan.

"Hey, Parker!" Brennan couldn't help a wide grin from spreading across her face as the 'mini Booth', as Angela called him, tackled her into a hug in the doorway of Jared and Padme's apartment. "Wow, look at you! You've grown so much!"

Parker beamed proudly at that. "Dad said the same thing," he said, pulling her into the apartment, closing the door and hugging her tightly again. "Wow, Bones…You look really awesome."

"Well, thank you. So do you."

Parker threw her his own version of the Booth charm smile, sending a sudden jolt to her broken heart. He took her hand and led her further inside the apartment. "I can't wait to show you everything, Bones!" he gushed. "Let's start with the science fair."

Brennan chuckled at his exuberance as he launched into a retelling of the fair, explaining it in minute detail. It didn't seem like he was even pausing for a breath. "Bub, calm down," Booth rolled his eyes. A smile was present on his face, though, as he watched them. It never failed to make him smile seeing Parker and Brennan together - his son, just like him, had a very special, soft spot for 'Bones'.

Brennan took the few seconds she had while Parker rummaged in his bag for the things he'd brought to hug Jared and go over to Padme. "Ooh, she's so beautiful, Padme," Brennan commented on the baby.

Padme beamed, wearing the smile of a proud mother. "Thank you," she murmured, gazing down lovingly into her daughter's big brown eyes. She was surprised to find, however, that Krishna's eyes were fixed not on her but on Brennan.

Brennan, who was very taken with the child, reached out to gently touch Krishna's hand. Krishna's tiny fingers immediately wrapped around Brennan's pointer finger, causing the scientist to laugh softly and gently shake the baby's hand. "Can I hold her?"

Padme agreed, seeing as how everyone else had tried to hold the baby, too. "Sure, Tempe," she said, preparing to hand the baby over. "But just a fair warning - she doesn't like to be held by anyone other than me or Jar…"

Padme trailed off, jaw dropped, as Brennan expertly shifted Krishna into her arms, chuckling warmly as she held the baby to her chest. Krishna gurgled happily, resting her head against Brennan's shoulder and gazing up at her with a tiny little baby smile on her face.

"What are you talking about?" Brennan shook her head at Padme. "She's such a calm baby."

Hodgins snorted, remembering the tantrum Krishna had put up earlier on. When Angela and Cam had both tried multiple times to hold her and coax her into calming down, Krishna had thrown such a fit that she wouldn't stop crying for ten minutes.

Brennan, however, was completely oblivious to this. She bounced Krishna gently in her arms, grinning widely. "Aw…Precious," she cooed, pressing a soft kiss to Krishna's forehead.

"Wow," Angela murmured, staring wide eyed at her friend. "I've been trying for half an hour to get her to like me. You just strolled right in and, boom! Magic, baby."

Brennan rolled her eyes at her friend. "Okay, now you're exaggerating," she said dryly.

Cam smirked. "No, no, she really wasn't," she said, in her usual sarcastic manner.

Parker, turning back to face Brennan, essay in hand, scowled when he noticed Krishna getting all her attention. "Bones! Why are you playing with the baby! You have to read my essay!"

"And I will," Brennan promised. "I just wanted to meet her."

"Well, you met her, now give her back," Parker demanded.

Booth glared at his son. "Parks, that was rude," he chided sternly.

Parker blushed slightly, falling silent and dropping his gaze to the ground, but he didn't apologize. Booth sighed. He's ten, he's not supposed to be this teen-like for a few more years, he thought exasperatedly.

Brennan, thankfully, didn't react to Parker's rudeness the same way she would've if Booth had said something like that. "You know, I think Krishna's getting sleepy, anyway," she said, noting Krishna's drooping eyelids. "I'll just hand her back and you can tell me everything that went on in your year."

Parker brightened up instantly. "Okay," he agreed eagerly. He faltered for a bit, sighing, and said, "I'm sorry I was rude before."

"No, it's fine," Brennan assured him. "Here, Padme…"

Krishna's eyes snapped open once more when she felt Brennan handing her over to Padme. Her brown eyes trailed over to the scientist and her opened her little mouth, giving out a cry of discontentment. Her hand reached out towards Brennan, her clenched fist opening and closing a few times, indicating she wanted to be held by Brennan once more.

Padme, instead of being envious, simply chuckled. "Looks like she really likes you," she mused. "You know…If you - and Parker," she spared the boy a glance. "Don't mind, could you hold Krish for a while? I've gotta check on dinner."

Parker sighed long-sufferingly but nodded his head in acquiescence. "Fine. But she can't interrupt when I'm telling her about my team winning our soccer match," he warned, giving Krishna a look as though he expected her to understand his words and comply.

In retaliation, Krishna let out a peal of laughter, blew a spit bubble in his direction and a cheeky smile curled on her lips.

Brennan laughed, walking over to the couch with Krishna in her arms. Angela stood up, letting Brennan sit next to Parker, and smiling as she watched them. It was funny to her how this woman, the same one who had declared a hundred times over just seven years ago that she didn't want any children, was now sitting on the couch at a family gathering (_family and Hannah_, she thought disdainfully) with a baby seated in her lap, listening to the excited chatter of a little boy.

Dinner had gone over smoothly, with a few awkward pauses here and there from a few at the table who weren't that comfortable with Hannah's presence, but Hannah was a journalist, who had traveled all over the world meeting strangers and trying to get them to warm up to her so she could conduct an interview. She was an expert at it, and things had smoothed over pretty quickly.

Now, with Krishna asleep in her room (Brennan had sung her to sleep when she had been far too upset to yield to sleep on her own), everyone was seated in the living room, TV on with the volume set on low, adults chit-chatting amongst themselves and Brennan and Parker still engaged in a never-ending conversation.

"I brought something else for you," Brennan told him, reaching into the paper shopping bag to grab the last remaining present she had gotten for Parker. "This is pretty special - I don't know if you'll like it, but I wanted to get it for you, anyway."

She took out the item and placed it in Parker's hands. Parker took it in with wide eyes, "Wow… Is that a tooth?" he fingered the ivory bone with a gentle finger.

Brennan nodded. "Yes, it is," she confirmed. "It came from a galeocerdo cuvier."

Parker gasped as he recognized the scientific term but Booth, who had been watching and listening in, scrunched up his face. "A what!" he questioned, eyeing the tooth warily.

Brennan and Parker shared an incredulous look, as though they were both shocked that Booth didn't know what it was. They turned their heads to Booth and said simultaneously, "Tiger shark."

Booth rolled his eyes, swallowing his amused smile. "Of course it is," he commented wryly. "Is that, y'know, safe?" he nodded at the shark.

Brennan scoffed. "Of course it is, Booth, I wouldn't give it to him if it weren't," she sounded faintly offended by his question.

He backtracked quickly. "No, yeah, I know," he nodded, holding up a hand in apology. "I was just…"

She cut him off. "It's been properly cleaned, Booth. It's fine," she said, dismissing his concerns. Turning back to Parker, she pointed to the beaded chain. "That was made by a local at the village closest to the dig site where I worked in Maluku. My team and I took a short trip to Java a few months back. We encountered a tiger shark when we went on a dive. It was fairly violent, for reasons unknown."

Parker's jaw dropped. "No way! You were in a fight with a tiger!" he shrieked. "That's so cool! Dad, did you hear! Bones fought a shark!"

Booth shook his head, smiling. "Yeah, bub, I heard," he murmured. The way things were going, he was pretty sure Parker considered Brennan his idol. _Well, next to his old man, of course_, he thought smugly.

Brennan chuckled. "I had a whole team of people with me," she reminded him. "It wasn't just me. We have a few locals with us, and though this very rarely happened, they were prepared anyway."

She had already known Parker would find this something incredible. As a result, she had printed out a few of the pictures she'd had with her and brought it along. She reached into her purse and pulled them out. "See? We managed to, uh, win the fight…" she showed him two pictures.

One was a close-up of the shark in the ocean, very much alive and very much zooming towards them. One of her colleagues had been a fan of photography and had brought along a suitable camera that had high resolution for taking pictures underwater. His reasoning had been that they were going to an island - he'd hoped that they would be able to dive at least once.

The other picture was of the shark, dead and brought back to the shore. Brennan stood with the team and the locals who had helped them, standing over the dead shark. While she had been upset that they'd had to kill the overly aggressive shark, she knew it had to be done.

"What happened to the shark?" Parker asked. "After you brought it back. You can't just throw away a shark."

Brennan grinned. "We didn't," she replied. "The fins and meat were extricated from the bones - shark fin soup and other delicacies involving shark meat are quite popular in Indonesia, too - and the bones, cleaned and kept intact were given to a museum in Jakarta."

"Wow," he said again, his gaze dropping to the tooth and fingering it with an almost reverent look in his eyes. "Did anyone get hurt?"

Brennan nodded. "A colleague of mine was bitten on the leg - his calf was torn in two, but they managed to stitch him up. It'll take him a while longer to regain full use of that leg, so he was flown back to London immediately," she recounted. "A female colleague was hit by the shark's tail on her back, and _I_ was bitten on my torso."

Parker's eyes were wide as he eyed her sweater. "No way…But you're alive!"

Brennan laughed, rolling her eyes. "Well, of course I am," she scoffed. "You think a shark can actually take me down?"

She and Parker shared a snort over her exaggerated vainness. "Can I see?" Parker asked eagerly.

Brennan pursed her lips. "Okay, but it's still reddish, so if you're gonna barf…Don't do it on me because this shirt's expensive," she joked, standing up and lifting the hem of her shirt to show him the two jagged stitch lines three inches apart from each other.

"Wow," Parker breathed.

"Very cool, Dr. B.," Hodgins complimented, eyes sparkling.

Angela, who had shut her eyes in advance, shook her head from left to right. "No details, please," she shuddered. "As long as you're alive, sweetie. That's all I need to know."

"They did a good job stitching you up," Cam noted, leaning forward to get a good look at the healing skin.

Booth frowned concernedly at his partner. "Does it still hurt?" he asked worriedly.

Brennan shrugged, letting her shirt drop back into place. "Every now and then it itches. But no, no pain," she lied - there was no way she was going to admit that the wound still bothered her a little.

Booth, too good at reading her, merely eyed her disbelievingly, "Uh-huh."

Parker immediately slipped the brown and black beaded chain around his neck, fingering the shark tooth pendant. "I am so set for show and tell," he grinned proudly, leaning forward to hug her soundly. "Thanks, Bones. That was awesome. And I'm glad the shark didn't kill you."

She grinned, hugging him back just as fervently. "I'm quite happy about that myself," she replied lightly.

Later on, as Brennan sat at Jared and Padme's breakfast counter, sipping from her glass and reading through Parker's essay - he wouldn't rest until she did - Angela and Cam joined her.

"We'll form the 'Hate Hannah' club," was the first thing Angela said to her as she slipped into the bar stool next to Brennan's.

"Angela," Brennan warned, putting down the paper and giving her a stern look.

Cam, standing on the opposite side of the breakfast bar, patted Brennan's arm in a friendly gesture. "I'll be a double agent," she offered. "Pretend to get close to her to get the inside scoop."

"Stop it, the both of you," Brennan hissed, raising her head to look at the others still in the living room to make sure none of them heard their bizarre conversation. When she was satisfied that they were getting enough privacy, she turned back to them. "Cam, I don't want nor do I need you to be a double agent. And Angela, stop this madness. Hannah is a perfectly nice woman - I think you saw that during dinner tonight."

Angela opened her mouth to argue with Brennan. "This is bad, Bren," Angela insisted. "This isn't how things are supposed to be."

"Or maybe they are," Brennan countered. At both the women's confused expressions, Brennan nodded her head in Booth's and Hannah's direction. They, along with Jared and Padme, were dancing together to some music Padme had put on. Hodgins kept Parker entertained at the side.

"Look at him," she said, her voice growing soft. "Look how happy he is…I would've never been able to make him smile like that."

Brennan's voice broke, and her vision clouded over a little. She cleared her throat, squeezing her eyes shut and shaking her head to regain her composure.

Once she was sure her eyes were dry and her voice was steady, she spoke again. "Booth is happy. He's _happy_, and he's in love. Yes, I am…Disappointed. But I'm glad for Hannah. If she's able to give him what he needs, what he wants…Then I'm thankful."

She gave both Cam and Angela a stern look. "Now, don't get me wrong, I am touched that you're both so loyal to me, but Booth is your friend too," she reminded them. "He would be very upset to learn neither of you support this. Be his friend. Be happy for him. Especially you, Cam."

Brennan placed her glass back on the counter and stood up, grabbing the essay and hopping from the bar stool she was sitting on. "I have to get going. I'll see you guys tomorrow," she said, going back over to the others.

"Parker, I read your essay," she told the boy, who looked up at her expectantly, ceasing talk with the entomologist about the new beetles he wanted to show him. "It was very…Wow. It was incredible, Parker."

Parker beamed with pride. "Really?"

Brennan nodded. "I…It was very…Well-written, very articulate," she praised. "Are you sure you wrote it by yourself?" she teased.

"I'm sure. I did it all on my own."

"No teachers? Your mom?"

"Nope."

"Genius classmates?"

Parker chuckled, rolling his eyes at her teasing. "No! Bones!" they shared a laugh.

Brennan handed the essay back to him and gave him a warm hug, "Parker, it was so good. I'm speechless right now…You know, I would've never been able to write something this amazing when I was your age."

Parker's brown eyes grew wide. "No way," he said disbelievingly. "You're the smartest person I know."

She nodded, agreeing, not at all modest about her intelligence. "That's true," she replied matter-of-factly, causing Hodgins next to Parker to laugh. "I was the smartest child in my school when I was your age, as well, but still…That essay was far more superior than anything I would've written when I was ten."

Parker grinned, squeezing her tightly. "I'm not hurting you, am I?" he asked suddenly, remembering her shark bite wounds.

Brennan shook her head, dropping a kiss to the curly hair. "No, I'm fine," she assured him.

"So, you think I'm going to be as smart as you one day?" Parker asked her shyly.

Brennan chuckled. "At the rate things are going, if you keep it up, you might be smarter than me when you're my age," she said, only half-joking. She'd recognized Parker's potential a long time ago. "I expect to see you taking on the world in twenty years, Parker."

Parker grinned at her with a hint of the cockiness she knew he had to have inherited from his father. "Hey, if I'm this smart now, I'm gonna rule the world in way less than twenty years," he joked.

Brennan rolled her eyes at that. "Oy, the dreaded Booth ego," she huffed playfully. "Okay, well, listen, I've got to get going…"

"So soon?" Parker asked, his smile slipping.

Brennan nodded, smiling apologetically. "I've got a video conference to make," she sighed.

Booth, who had stopped dancing when he'd heard that Brennan was leaving, frowned, stepping forward. "What video conference do you have to make at this hour?"

"International," she replied immediately. "Japan. It's an appropriate hour now to have a business call…I'm sorry to run out on you."

Padme shook her head. "It's fine," she said, coming over to hug Brennan. "It was really good seeing you again, Tempe."

Brennan returned her hug. "You, as well. Krishna's a beautiful baby, Padme," she replied, receiving a hug from Jared next.

Parker hugged her, too, making her promise to go out to the diner with him and Booth soon. "Bye, Bones," he waved as she stepped out the front door.

Brennan kept a smile on her face as she walked down the lit hallway down to the elevator. She kept a smile on her face as she entered the elevator and pressed the button for the basement parking lot. She kept the smile plastered to her lips as she stepped into her car and drove back home. She was still smiling as she parked her car and rode the elevator up to her own apartment, the one her father had stayed in for a year so that she wouldn't be out of a place to stay once she returned.

When she had entered her dark, empty apartment, she closed the door behind her. She tossed her keys to her right, where she could make out the outline of the small table she kept by the door for her keys and mail. She stood there, just staring into the darkness of her home, the weight of the pretenses she'd had to keep up all night crashing down on her.

Tears prickled the backs of her eyes, and a sudden, uncomfortable lump formed in her throat. Brennan pursed her lips in an effort to keep the tears at bay, but she wasn't strong enough when she was on her own, surrounded by nothing but a reminder of just that, and one tear spilled onto her cheek.

It was as though that was the dam breaking.

Brennan's hand flew to her heart, throbbing and aching so painfully, and her other arm wrapped around her midsection. She bent at the waist for a moment, the shocking intensity of the pain she was feeling overwhelming her - she had been so good at keeping it all at bay that she would forget, by the end of the day, just how agonizing it was to feel it all.

A sob broke tore from her throat, and Brennan rocked back on her heels, sinking down to the ground and sitting with her back against the door. She brought her knees to her chest, hiding her face in her folded arms at the top of her knees, letting her sadness overtake her.

Just for tonight.

* * *

"I was never one to patiently pick up broken fragments and glue them together again and tell myself that the mended whole was as good as new. What is broken is broken - and I'd rather remember it as it was at its best, then mend it and see the broken places as long as I lived."

- Margaret Mitchell.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** In this chapter, I took creative license and mentioned that there is a 'Smithsonian Museum' in London. I hope this doesn't offend anyone.

Also, I know Booth never actually said the words 'I love you' to Brennan outside the Hoover in the 100th episode, but let's pretend he did for the sake of this fan fiction - makes it more dramatic this way.

P.S. The long rant in this chapter is just one of many. Blame it on my completely unhealthy Gilmore Girls obsession. I thought the rant was heartbreaking, though, so let me know if you thought so, too.

**Disclaimer:** Hart Hanson owns Bones, not me.

*MUSIC*

Fool's Gold by Adrienne Pierce

No Envy, No Fear by Joshua Radin

Don't Speak by No Doubt

World Spins Madly on by The Weepies

* * *

"Heavy hearts, like heavy clouds in the sky, are best relieved by the letting of a little water."

- Antoine Rivarol.

* * *

_**July 2011**_

"Good job on the interrogation today, Bones," Booth praised as he sat on the couch in her office. "You got him to confess.

Brennan shot him a smile over the paperwork she was doing at her desk. "Thank you, Booth," she said graciously. "Please remove your feet from my coffee table."

He rolled his eyes. Only Bones would sound polite when she's scolding someone, he thought fondly. Ignoring her request, he sighed as he scribbled away his name at the bottom of yet another page. "I hate paperwork," he muttered.

Brennan chuckled, "You've always hated paperwork."

Booth nodded. "Yeah, but I hate it more now," he sighed again.

Brennan raised her head, placing her arms on the table on top of the paperwork, a playful smile playing on the edges of her lips. :And why is that?" she asked coyly, going along with his childish statement.

Booth tilted his head back, reclining back against the couch and giving Brennan a view of the wistful smile he wore. "I miss Hannah," he admitted with a soft voice, a tone she had come to love hearing but hate at the same time since it always had something to do with the blonde woman living with him and playing house with Parker whenever he stayed with his dad.

Her own smile fell momentarily, but she was quick to recover, a smaller, slightly strained, version of her previous grin on her lips. "Oh."

Booth pushed the paperwork off his lap, letting it fall on the couch. "Yeah," he ran a hand through his hair. "She was on assignment early this week, then we were swamped on this case…I feel like we haven't spend much time together recently."

Brennan nodded as though she sympathized with him. "Well, sure…" she said awkwardly, unsure what else she could say. Her eyes traced over his sad face, and even though her heart protested madly, she offered, "Booth, why don't you head home?"

Booth's head snapped up to look at her. "Really?"

God, how she hated the hopeful smile curled on his mouth, his dark eyes boring into her with an eager glint.

"Yes," she said anyway. "It's been a long, hard case. You deserve to go home to Hannah and just relax for the rest of the night. I'll finish up both of our paperwork - you just have to sign them tomorrow."

He hesitated for one short second, and she found herself taking pleasure in that. "I…I can't," he said, obviously torn between what was right and what he wanted. "I mean, you're tired, too, and…"

"Yes, but _I_ don't have a beautiful woman waiting for me at home," she joked lightly. He had to bark out a laugh at that. "Just go home, Booth," she winced internally at the slightly harsh undertone of her voice.

If Booth noticed, he didn't mention. His expression didn't falter. The happy glint in his eyes didn't disappear.

"I'll be fine. I'm almost done with mine, anyway."

A part of her hoped he would argue with her further. A big part of her hoped that he would wave off her suggestion and continue to do paperwork with her.

But, of course, her life had never gone the way she wished it to, not when it came to personal matters. So it didn't surprise her one bit that Booth jumped to his feet, snatching his jacket off the couch's arm rest and dashing to her to give her a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks, Bones," he told her warmly, slipping on his coat. "You're awesome."

Brennan sighed as she watched him leave hurriedly through her glass wall. "I know," she murmured to the empty room.

She dropped the pen she was holding on top of her paperwork, rolling her chair two inches to her left to sit directly in front of the computer screen. She reached out to move her mouse, clicking on the window to open up her e-mail.

There were several unopened messages from her editor and two from her publisher. She ignored those and went straight for the message by a committee from the Smithsonian Museum in London. They had sent her an e-mail about a week prior, telling her that they had read about the discoveries she'd made in Maluku, and that they were very suitably impressed. They wanted her to be the lead anthropologist on a dig in Greece.

Now, Brennan had always fielded several requests at once. Ever since she had gotten back from Maluku, she'd been getting twice as many offers from all over the world.

At first, she had simply ignored them - she had only been back for barely over two months. She'd just been reunited with her family, with Angela, the rest of the team…With Booth. She had no desire to leave DC at least for a while.

But then, she hadn't taken into consideration how difficult it would be to watch Booth being in love with another woman. She hadn't taken into account how painfully her heart clenches just at the sight of his happy face these days, knowing the reason behind that joy.

When the offer for the Greece expedition had come across her lap, Brennan had deliberated going.

The dig would last for quite some time - close to two years, actually. She would be stationed in Greece, far away from DC, far away from Booth and Hannah, far away from her pain. She would be surrounded by anthropology, surrounded by the only thing she had in her life these days that seemed worth it.

So she had thought about it, for over a week. She wasn't required to give an answer for two more weeks, and the dig wouldn't even begin until next month. She had time, but with each passing day, she was pushed closer and closer towards saying 'yes'.

Now Brennan sat in front of her glowing computer screen, staring at the words the directors of this new project had written, promising her every possible incentive they could think of.

"Where was Booth rushing off to?" she heard, and jumped, looking up in surprise at Cam, strolling into her office. "We already solved the case - he can't be having another hunch, can he?"

Brennan gave Cam a small smile. "He misses Hannah," she repeated Booth's words. Cam's easy smile turned into an awkward one. "I told him to go home to her."

"Oh."

Brennan reached one hand down, pushing the lever to recline the back of her chair slightly. She leaned back against the slanted backrest, sighing as she closed her eyes tiredly.

Cam eyed Brennan with barely concealed sympathy. If someone were to ask her, how they had all gotten to this point, she wasn't sure she could answer.

Six years ago, when she had first met Brennan, she hadn't even liked the woman. Everything, from her lack of respect of Cam's given authority over her, to her influence over the rest of the team - over Booth - to the way she made Cam feel like _she_ was the one working for her, had irked her. She had thought Brennan to be a cold, aloof woman incapable of human emotion.

And, now, looking at her, being as cold and aloof as she had been six years ago, she understood so much clearly.

She was cold and aloof because she was _too_ capable of human emotion. So capable, in fact, that when she allowed herself to feel it, it crashed into her like the strongest tidal wave and overwhelmed her so completely.

On one hand, like Brennan said, Cam was Booth's friend and she was happy for him that he had found himself happiness.

On the other hand, Cam couldn't help but feel like he had made the wrong choice.

"I'm sorry, Dr. Brennan," Cam sighed, causing the woman in question to crack open her eyes slowly to look at her. "I wish things are different for you."

Brennan nodded. "Me, too," she agreed, running a hand through her hair wearily. "But you know, I'll be fine."

"You know what helps?" Cam asked after a moment.

Brennan cracked a small grin. "Booze and sex?" she suggested.

Cam chuckled. She was unsure if Brennan was making a joke or this was one of those honest comments from her that took people by surprise if they didn't know her tendency to be candid at all times. Either way, it amused her. "Yes," she agreed with the anthropologist.

"Well, I've got that one covered," Brennan assured Cam, remembering the string of one night stands she had taken to having lately in an attempt to drown her sorrows in alcohol and the momentary physical pleasure.

Cam shook her head, rolling her eyes. "Well, good," she said wryly. "But that's not all I meant." At Brennan's raised eyebrow, she elaborated, "Talking about it. You know, Dr. Brennan… You're not alone. We've all suffered through heartbreak before. You might find that it helps to open up to someone."

Brennan couldn't help the derisive snort if she tried. "Yeah, because opening myself up really did me wonders the first time around," she pointed out sarcastically. "I'm not you, Cam. I'm not…I don't talk about my pain and feel better about it."

Instead of taking offense in Brennan's words - mostly because she knew Brennan actually didn't mean to sound the rude - she tilted her head to the side. "What does help, then? Because the way you've been pretending that everything's fine…I'm afraid it would all be too much to keep bottled up inside."

Brennan stared at Cam for the longest time before leaning forward over her desk. "You know the offer the Smithsonian offered to me?" she asked rhetorically, knowing Cam already knew - all offers had to go through Cam first, since she was the 'boss'. Cam always forwarded all of the e-mails to her to read and sort through once she'd received them.

Cam nodded, eyes growing wide at the implication. "You're thinking of going?" she asked, stepping forward to sink down on a chair opposite Brennan.

Brennan shrugged. "I'm considering it," she replied, confirming Cam's suspicions. "It's a very prestigious offer. I'm intrigued by it."

Cam, never one to take nonsense from anyone, gave her a knowing look. "And it's thousands of miles away from Booth," she added.

Brennan couldn't help but smile at Cam's fearless behavior at confronting her. Not many people would. "Yes," she admitted. "I found that aspect to be…Pleasing to my heartache, but distressing at the same time." She frowned at that. "It's all very confusing."

It wasn't confusing to Cam, who understood what Brennan meant easily, but she kept that to herself. She merely sighed and shook her head. "Isn't that dig a two year thing?"

"Twenty months," Brennan corrected. "Not a full two years."

"_Right_," Cam dragged out the world sardonically.

Brennan drew her bottom lip between her teeth. "I would understand it if you were worried about my position here," she told her boss. "But you already have a list of people I deemed worthy enough to replace me momentarily. And if you are uncertain as to whether or not I should remain an employee of the Jeffersonian, then Clark Edison would-"

Cam cut her off with a shake of the head. "Hush, Dr. Brennan," she chided softly. "I wouldn't dream of replacing you permanently. You're one of us, you'll have your job here waiting for you as long as you want it."

Brennan gave her a nod and a small, thankful grimace - she tried to smile, she really did, but she found herself unable to do so at the moment.

"So…You're really going to go," Cam muttered, staring at Brennan in shock.

Brennan pursed her lips. "I haven't made up my mind one hundred percent," she said slowly. "But I'm almost positive that I will be heading the dig in Greece."

* * *

"Hey, Bones, we got a c-whoa!" Booth stopped dead with one foot barely through the doorway of his partner's office. "What's going on, Bones? Doing a little re-modeling?"

Her office, previously so warm and filled with a zillion trinkets and artifacts she'd acquired from her trips, was mostly barren now. There was her furniture - desk, chair, couch, table. But there was nothing on her desk except her computer. Her shelves were all empty, three boxes standing side by side near her couch, filled to the brim with things. There was even her rug all rolled up and thrown above two of the boxes.

Brennan was sitting behind her desk, clicking away at the computer. "What?" she asked distractedly, having to force herself away from the e-mail she was composing to the Smithsonian, to accept their invitation for the dig.

Booth stepped further into the almost empty office. "Why did you pack away your stuff?" he gestured towards the boxes.

Brennan's eyes flickered to the boxes once before returning to her computer screen. "Oh, that," she said flatly. "I'm leaving."

Booth started at her words, swiveling around from where he had stood looking at the empty shelves, to stare at her. "Wait…What?" he asked, shell shocked.

"I'm leaving," Brennan repeated, leaving the finished draft of the e-mail on her computer - all she had to do was proofread it then send, but if there was a fresh crime scene waiting for her, she didn't want to keep it waiting and possible contaminated. She would just have to finish this later. "Would you mind waiting for a few minutes? I need to go to the ladies' room. I won't be long."

Booth shook his head, waving the file he gripped in his hand madly. "Whoa, whoa, wait," he said, his voice slightly raised, halting her halfway to the door.

"What? No time for bathroom?" she asked innocently.

He glowered in her direction. "You're leaving! What, when? Why? For how long?"

"Yes, I am. In two weeks time. For a dig that I have been asked to lead, in Greece. It would last approximately twenty months, provided everything go according to plan," Brennan answered his questions in order. Raising an eyebrow, she deadpanned, "Can I go to the bathroom now?"

"No!" he answered incredulously. "You don't just slip in 'I'm leaving for two years' in casual conversation!"

She frowned at him. "Well, I really don't see why not," she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "It's not a big deal. I'm coming back."

"In two years time," he stressed.

She rolled her eyes. "That is an incorrect exaggeration - I would only be gone for twenty months," she corrected him.

Booth exhaled loudly, stepping forward and dropping the file he was holding on her desk. "Bones, it's a big deal," he said in that forced calm voice of his that she knew meant he was anything but calm. "Okay? I mean, uh, how would you feel if I were to suddenly pack up and tell you I was leaving for two years tomorrow?"

"It's not tomorrow," she said immediately. "It's in two weeks. I planned on telling you tomorrow at Parker's soccer game."

"Oh, _that's_ better."

Brennan was starting to grow frustrated. "You know what, Booth, I am a grown woman," she snapped. "I don't have to ask you for permission every time I want to do something. Now, if you'll excuse me, we have a crime scene waiting and I really have to pee!"

Booth watched with wide, disbelieving eyes as his partner - for the next two weeks only, apparently, he scoffed sarcastically - stormed out of her office to head to the ladies' room.

Suddenly weary, Booth walked the few steps needed to sink down on her should-be-illegal-it's-so-comfortable office chair.

The first thing he noticed was the e-mail that her computer was still open to. His eyes ran over the words she'd typed so eloquently, thanking this 'Smithsonian Museum' for the opportunity to lead such an impressive dig, and how she would be more than happy to oblige.

Booth dropped his head back against the backrest of the chair, sighing heavily.

It had been two and a half months since their return to DC. Two and a half months since everything had fallen into place and smoothed over, like everything would be just fine now. There was a certain undercurrent, a certain 'calm before the storm' feeling he'd had once or twice, but nothing had come of it and now he was ignoring the signs.

Maybe it had been stupid of him to so, especially when they concerned a certain unpredictable partner of his. Look at what she had under her sleeve now - telling him about her trip when she was all packed up and ready to send an e-mail to some stuffy boring old museum.

They were finally, finally, getting back to almost being 'Booth and Bones' again. They were almost there, so close he could almost taste it. They were almost back to being the way they were. And she was leaving him.

This wasn't a six weeks trip, either. This was an entire two years away from DC. God, just the thought of her being gone that long…

Booth shook his head, letting his tired eyes fall on the stupid e-mail again.

Without thinking, his fingers flew to her keyboard, one pointer finger poised over the 'backspace' button.

_No, I can't do this_, Booth tried to plead with his more rational, more angelic side. It was wrong to rewrite her email…Even if his heart was screaming at him to do everything he could to stop her from leaving. It was wrong.

Before he could pull his fingers away, however, they were already flying across the keyboard, rewriting certain parts of the e-mail so that the words were 'thankful for the opportunity, but unable to oblige' instead. _It's just a draft_, he convinced himself as he typed.

"Booth! Let's go!" he heard, his head snapping up as he saw Brennan storming towards her office from the platform. He stood up abruptly from behind her desk, his fingers fumbling with the keys.

"Oh, crap!" Booth muttered harshly, when his finger accidentally hit 'enter'.

'MESSAGE SENT' flashed across the screen, and his jaw dropped. _Oh no, oh no, oh no_, he chanted over and over internally.

He almost vaulted to the other side of her desk in an attempt to put himself as far away from the 'crime of the scene' as possible. He grabbed the manila folder he'd dropped on her desk earlier, gripping it with both hands as Brennan grabbed her coat and the forensics kit she kept by her door.

"Ready?" Brennan looked at him.

Booth winced at the thought of those sharp eyes glaring at him once she found out what he'd done. "Yeah," he said sullenly. _This is what I get for listening to the devil instead of the angel_, he chided himself, sulking as he followed her out the door.

Brennan, oblivious to his internal ramblings or what he had just done in her office, was staring straight ahead, walking side by side with Booth as she'd done for the past two and a half months.

The feel of his warm hand, pressed against the small of her back, guiding her towards the exit, startled her. She shot him a sideways look, but he wasn't paying any attention to her, a frown on his face and a furrow between his eyebrows.

"So where's the body at?" she asked, jolting Booth out of his thoughts.

He looked over to her, taking in a deep breath and letting it out quickly. "Uh…A couple got home from their vacation and found a rotting corpse in their bedroom," he said, blinking his eyes a few times to clear his head from the deadly mistake he'd just made. "They said they didn't have anyone come by to house-sit, and no one but their parents have spare keys and all of them are alive."

Brennan nodded, "We should hurry. I don't want the remains to be compromised."

And even as he bantered with her, no longer preoccupied with whatever it was that had gotten him so distracted moments ago, Brennan was pleased to note that his hand remained at the small of her back.

Just like old times.

* * *

Brennan was juggling carrying a cup of coffee from the café across the street from her apartment, a bunch of files for the authentication of a mummy in a new exhibit she had been asked to oversee, and reading a folded up newspaper all at the same time as she walked down the hallway of the Jeffersonian, heading to her lab.

"Sweetie!" she heard, and didn't even look up to greet her friend. "Ugh, what happened to 'good morning, Angela, how are you today'?"

"Good morning, Angela, how are you today?" Brennan intoned, looking up briefly to shoot Angela a sarcastic smirk.

Angela rolled her eyes but chuckled at the same time. "Stop reading and walking, sweetie," she chided. "You're going to trip over something."

"There's nothing to trip over, Ange," she waved her friend's concern away.

Angela sighed, but let it go anyway. "So, I was pleasantly surprised when Cam told me the big news - I mean, I expected to hear it from you myself, but I know how you sometimes zone out on things like this…"

Brennan gave Angela a confused look. "Ange, what are you…?" she trailed off, her jaw dropping as they entered her office. "Wha…Who put all my things back into place?" she demanded, a little angry. She wasn't all too comfortable with people touching her things without permission, and the fact that she had to repack everything annoyed her.

Angela rolled her eyes. "That new intern, Bailey," she answered promptly. "Cam announced that you wouldn't be leaving after all, and she got overly excited…Sweetie? Sweetie, where are you going?"

Brennan ignored Angela, dropping her coffee, files and newspaper on her desk - her desk which were covered with her personal belongings, just like her shelves and her bookcase - and storming out of the office to have a chat with Cam.

"Cam!" she called out loudly, swiping her access card and jogging up the steps to the platform.

Cam, who had been standing next to Wendell, standing over a mostly fleshy body, looked up. "Oh, good morning, Dr.-"

"Why did you tell everyone I was staying?" she interrupted.

Cam's eyebrows rose to her hairline. "Because you are," she answered, confused. "I received an e-mail from the Smithsonian saying how sorry they were that you couldn't join them."

Brennan stared at Cam with a blank expression on her face. "Is this a joke?" she demanded. "I'm going. I packed. I wrote an e-mail…" she trailed off, thinking about the odd incident a few days ago when she had returned to her office after going to the crime scene with Booth only to discover that her e-mail had been sent. She had thought nothing of it - perhaps she had sent it by accident, which was just fine since her draft was complete, anyway - but could it be…?

Without a word to Cam or Wendell, Brennan turned on her heel to rush down the platform and headed straight to her office.

She passed by Angela, who was sashaying her way towards the platform to see what all the fuss was about. When she noticed 'Whirlwind Brennan' headed in the opposite direction, she threw up her hands in frustration. "Pick a direction, sweetie," she grumbled for no one to hear, turning back to follow Brennan into her office.

She found Brennan behind her desk, clicking away at her computer, searching for a saved draft of her e-mail. When she found it, she clicked 'print' and turned around to face her printer, snatching the paper as soon as it slipped out.

_To the directors of the Greece expedition_

_Smithsonian Museum_

_I thank you for your courteous words regarding my latest find in Maluku Islands. I am grateful for the recognition given by the established Smithsonian institute._

_I am thankful for the opportunity presented to me by your board of directors concerning the upcoming dig to Greece. However, I am sorry to say that I must decline and cannot oblige this particular request due to conflicting schedules…_

Brennan gasped as she re-read the paper in her hand. Parts of it she recognized as words she herself had written, but some of them had been changed to decline the invitation rather than accept.

How could this have happened? How could it have possibly been changed? She had been the one to compose it - she had sent it right away after composing it, even if it was by accident…

Brennan's train of thought trailed off as she thought about the day she had sent the e-mail.

Booth had been there, in her office, interrupting her while she'd written the e-mail, getting all upset over her 'sudden' revelation that she was leaving for a dig for two years. She'd distinctly remember making a decision to just leave the e-mail on her computer to proofread later on before sending. She had just assumed she'd accidentally pressed 'send' when she'd come back to her office to see the message 'MESSAGE SENT' on her screen.

"That bastard," she growled, staring at the faulty e-mail.

Angela, who had seen Brennan's expression grow darker and heard her cursing under her breath, stepped forward slightly, tentatively. "Sweetie?" she called out softly. "What's wrong?"

"I didn't refuse to go on the dig, Angela, _that's_ what's wrong!" Brennan burst out, feeling a very strong wave of anger rising in her. Her blood felt like it was boiling, her eyes flashing dangerously.

Angela looked confused. "Wait, what? Cam said she got an e-mail from…"

"I know she did," Brennan cut her off. "I didn't send that e-mail, Angela. I wanted to go. We just went shopping yesterday. Why would I do that if I had no intention of going?"

Angela attempted a weak grin and an equally weak joke. "Well, Bren, there really is no shame in shopping for no reason whatsoever," she tried. When Brennan didn't even crack a small smile at that, Angela sighed. "Well, if you didn't refuse, who did?"

"Booth!"

"Someone called my name?"

Angela and Brennan both turned their heads to see Special Agent Seeley Booth, walking into the lion's den. He had seemed jovial at first, but one look at Brennan's livid face made him falter. He had been waiting for her to find out about his mistake for days now, and every time he saw these past few days - which was a lot, considering their new case - he had been jumpy and terrified she was pretending to be nice just so she could get close enough to karate chop him to death.

Angela, picking up on her sixth sense that there was about to be one very big blow-up, started backing towards the exit. "Uh, I'm just going to leave you two alone," she said, jerking her thumb over her shoulder. "To…Talk."

Booth grabbed Angela's wrist when she was close enough. "Angela, please stay," he said in a mock cheerful tone, his dark eyes pleading with her.

Angela gently shook her hand free from his grip. "Sorry, Agent Studly," she whispered so Brennan - who had taken to pacing angrily with her hands on her hips - "I'm not going to be your human shield against _that_ explosion."

And with those ominous parting words, Angela scurried out of the door and as far away from Brennan's office as humanly possible.

Booth, gulping, turned back towards Brennan. "Hey, Bones," he said, his tone carefully light and pleasant. "What's up…?"

"Don't you 'what's up' me!" Brennan hissed, storming over to him with anger so prominent in her gray-blue eyes, making it seem almost ethereal-looking, that he had a sudden urge to step back.

_Or kiss her_, he thought randomly. Catching himself, he shook himself out it. _Fear makes people think crazy thing, he assured himself_.

"What the hell is this?" Brennan demanded, waving the printed e-mail draft in his face.

Although he was pretty sure he knew exactly what was on the piece of paper, he took it from her hand and read it anyway - there was no point in outing himself to her earlier than necessary if it wasn't what he thought it was.

But, as luck would have it, his eyes fell on the words she had written and he had re-wrote and sent in a moment of panic. "Uh…" he trailed off, hoping to buy himself some time from her oncoming wrath as he tried to hide the guilt he knew was written all over his face.

Brennan wasn't waiting for him to reply, however. "It's a letter, Booth," she explained to him in a loud, sarcastic tone. "Given to me by the directors of the Greek expedition, telling me how damn sorry they are that I can't join them on their very prestigious, very coveted excavation!"

He faked surprised enthusiasm at her words, "Well, I had no idea you were gonna stay, Bones! Bright side - diner pie here is way better than it probably is in Greece, huh?"

Brennan glowered at him, ignoring his words. "Only problem is," she continued. "I never sent them that email they received. I never said 'no'. In fact, I remember very distinctly writing a draft saying 'yes', which I left on my computer that day _you_ were in my office, _alone_!"

This time, he did take a step back. "Bones…" he tried to calm her down, both hands placed in front of him, either to stave off an attack or in a gesture of surrender, he wasn't quite sure.

Brennan only stepped closer to him, unafraid to step right into his face and invade his personal space. "I mean, I got back and there was a note on my computer saying the letter had been sent and I thought 'hmm, maybe I pressed 'sent' already so fine, one more thing crossed off my list', but you rewrote it!" her voice had risen several octaves, and Booth could see a few employees outside wearing the standard blue Jeffersonian Medico-legal lab coat pausing to watch the scene.

His partner, however, was oblivious to them. She continued to glower at him with the most livid expression he had ever seen on her - _and lemme tell ya, not a pleasant feeling to be on the receiving end of it_, he commented to himself.

"You freakin' _rewrote_ my freakin' email and you freakin' _sent_ it to them!" Brennan had clenched her hands into tight fists and, with every angry word spoken, she had pounded her fist against Booth's chest. "What the _hell_ is the matter with you!"

His chest starting to hurt from her not-so-gentle punches, he reached out, letting the paper drift slowly to the ground between them, his hands wrapping around her wrists and holding them so that she couldn't hit him anymore.

"Look, I'm sorry!" he apologized, speaking over her words.

Brennan stopped speaking, and stared up at him. He was surprised to see tears swimming in her pretty eyes, taken aback at the emotion in them. "I'm sorry," he said again, softer this time. "I know that was out of line."

This seemed to get her back to 'rant mode'. "That was _beyond_ out of line, Booth!" she snapped, yanking her hands away from his grasp. "I bought new suitcases. I went on a shopping trip with Angela to get clothes appropriate for the weather. I told Cam. I…"

She stepped back, yielding for the first time since he'd known her, backing a few steps away from him. Her arms wrapped around her midsection in a gesture he was unfamiliar with. His eyebrows drew together as he eyed her posture - she seemed like she was physically holding herself together, keeping herself from crumbling. It was so unlike her, so damn not Temperance Brennan, that it made his heart clench.

"I had it all planned out," she finished, her voice breaking slightly.

Booth, realizing that this conversation was probably deeper than just her anger at him for doing something do ridiculously stupid like rewriting an email for some museum, cleared his throat. He shot a look at the growing crowd of lab-coat-wearing busybodies.

"Bones, maybe we should talk about this somewhere else?" he suggested, tilting his head to the side to indicate their onlookers.

Brennan simply glowered at him. "No!" she snarled. "No, I don't want to talk about this. I want to leave. I want to go to Greece. I want to be somewhere very, very far away from you!"

To say that he was shocked over her words was probably a gross understatement. "Bones!" he said, aghast, hurt by her words.

But she was already leaving the office, snarling at the crowd outside her office to 'get the hell back to work before I see to it that you're not only fired, but blacklisted from every decent institute in America!'

Once his shock had waned enough for him to move, he rushed out the door and ran down the now empty hallway to search for her. She was already gone, and he turned his head around frantically, looking for a sign of her.

The only person he did find was Sweets, strolling into the lab with a bewildered expression on his face. "Hey, Booth," he greeted the irate agent. "Did you know why Dr. Brennan just left looking like she's about to literally bite off the heads of any…Booth? Booth, I don't think she's in a good mood, you shouldn't go…" Sweets trailed off, watching as Booth ran off in the direction of the lab exit.

Shaking his head, he mentally commented how Booth had no idea what he was getting himself into.

Booth, who had caught sight of Brennan crossing the Jeffersonian gardens, pumped his legs faster, catching up to her easily even if she had been storming off as quickly as she could, arms crossed over her chest and head bowed.

"Bones!" he called out to her, anger seeping into his voice as he did so. What he did was out of line, but he hadn't deserved the words she'd thrown at him. "Bones!"

She didn't answer him, and pretended as though she didn't hear him. He reached her, his hand wrapping around her arm and turning her around. "Bones, that was cruel, what you said," he told her, hurt and anger lacing his words.

If it had been anyone else, bar Parker, he would've been able to handle it. But she was Brennan, his partner, his best friend. It was different.

"Well, it's true," she insisted stubbornly, once again yanking her arm from his grip. She couldn't have him touching her when she was _this_ close to breaking down. "I want to not be around you. Okay?"

Booth shook his head. What the hell kind of a question is that? "No, not okay," he answered incredulously. "Bones, I know you're mad at me, but come on…I'll write a freakin' apology letter to the museum if you-"

Brennan barked out a harsh laugh, blinking her eyes a few times to clear her vision, clouded from with tears. Unfortunately for her, instead of blinking them away, her tears started to spill down her cheeks. "Oh, come on, Booth," she shook her head at him trying to insist this was about the email even now. "You're you. You read people for a living. You read me like an open book. You know this isn't about the dig."

Booth fell silent, his feet halting from moving closer still to her.

Yes, he knew. He'd known since the moment he'd seen the pain in her eyes when he'd told her the first time about Hannah, about being in love. He'd seen it every time she smiled at him when he spoke about Hannah because, _dammit_, even a year apart couldn't erase everything he had learned about her and that smile wasn't real, wasn't a genuine, happy smile.

So he knew.

He'd known since the beginning, even knew that she'd convinced herself that she was fooling him even though she knew better. But he'd stayed silent through it all, letting her pretend and letting himself pretend that he didn't know, because he just wasn't ready to re-hash it all out. To go there all over again.

And why should he? He had Hannah. He was in love. He was happy. He didn't have to go there if he didn't want to, and he didn't want to. Not when 'there' was filled with pain and heartache and one-sided love. Not when 'here' was filled with joy and obliviousness and loving kisses.

Maybe, just maybe, deep down, he kept quiet because some small part of him wanted Brennan to hurt the way _he_ had hurt. It was wrong, and selfish, but he was allowed to be selfish. He was allowed when he had hurt for so long over her.

But now he was standing there, just barely a foot away from her, and there were tears spilling from her blue eyes, and there was heartbreak written all over her…And he wanted to weep.

"Bones…" he whispered, almost reaching out to wipe the tears from her eyes. Almost.

Brennan was embarrassed to let a sob escape her mouth. Biting down on her lower lip, she shook her head, swallowing hard a few times so that she could speak without the lump in her throat. "We were…We were doing just fine," Brennan said, her watery eyes flying to his. "But then Sweets came along with his stupid book and you said you loved me."

Her arms wrapped tighter around herself. "You stood there, and you told me 'I love you', and you're Booth. You're Booth, which means that even though I never said it, you know I felt it," she knew there was no going back from this. There was no pretending that the words she were saying, that she was going to say, never spilled from her lips. But she couldn't stop. The dam had broken again, and he was there to witness it all.

Booth squeezed his eyes shut at her words. "Bones," he said, his voice firm but soft. A plea, a warning, not to say anything else because if she did, he would, too, and this just wasn't the right time.

It would never be the right time, because goddamit, it still hurt him if he thought about it. It would hurt even more saying it all out loud and he wasn't ready.

He just wasn't ready.

Being the woman he had loved so deeply, so damn completely that it had consumed him from the inside out, she, of course, didn't listen to him.

With determination in her eyes, she continued, "But I couldn't deal with it because I'm not Booth. I'm Brennan. I'm the really weird, really awkward scientist so I said 'I can't'."

Here, she started to laugh, a tearful, almost crazed laugh that showed him just how hurt she was.

Shaking her head, she said, "And for _all_ that you claimed to love me, you could just…Say you were moving on. And you did. You moved on, and that's great Booth because if anyone deserved that it's you, but it hurts okay? It hurts all the time."

Brennan looked down, licking her dry lips in an attempt to speak next without sobbing her words out like she had been doing the past few minutes.

"And I know it's my fault," she admitted, her voice soft. "It's my fault for not saying yes but what else could I do? If I'd said yes, I would've ended up screwing it all up because that's what I do best. And you're the _one thing_ in my life I can't screw up."

"We can't do this," Booth interrupted her, his own tears forming in his eyes. "Not now, Bones. Not here. I…I can't do this. Not again-"

"So I went to Indonesia, and you went to Afghanistan, and while I was there, in some stupid remote jungle, all I could think about was _you_," she confessed, her voice rising again as she spoke, fingers flying to her face to swipe at the tears continuously streaming down her cheeks every few seconds. "And I'm still _nowhere near_ being the perfect woman for you, which was why I'm sad but happy you found Hannah. She's the perfect woman for you, and I get that."

"Don't mention her," he shook his head. "Don't mention her when it's us we're talking about. Not when it's like this."

Brennan stared at him, feeling a certain kind of nausea building up in her stomach, "But it just hurts watching you with her. My heart feels like it's raw, like it's really bleeding, though I know it's not scientifically true."

Above them, the clouds opened up, and rain started to fall from the heavens. They were soaked to the skin within seconds, but neither cared. Neither moved from where they stood face to face, neither even thought to seek cover.

"Then _they_ called," she continued, sniffling and wiping her nose with the back of her hand. "And they said 'come to Greece' and I thought '_there's_ my chance. There's my chance to get the hell away from Booth' because I stood on the sidelines and I watched you being in love and it fucking _hurts_. Okay! It hurts! So I put on a stupid smile on my face and I told you I was leaving."

Her fist flew out, and she hit him just once more on the shoulder. He was brought back cruelly to the time he'd just been reinstated after his coma, when he'd told her for the first time that he loved her - only to take back the romantic meaning behind his words by adding an 'atta girl' behind them.

Only this time, it wasn't a playful punch. It was a real punch, borne out of hurt, meant to hurt. "Why couldn't you just let me leave? Why did you have to screw with that? You moved on, Booth, and I'm just trying to do the same here! God, what the hell do you want from me!"

She turned to leave, her shoulders racking with sobs, and this time, he didn't fight the urge to pull her back.

His hands went to her shoulders, and he spun her around, his fingers wrapping around her thin upper arms. "I'm not the bad guy here!" he protested. Her scoff made him madder. "No, you hurt me. You hurt my heart first. I was so lost for the longest time, Bones. And you were the reason. You were the reason."

"Stop," this time she was the one saying it, half-heartedly pushing at his chest.

He shook his head. "No, no I won't stop. You wanted to do this, so fine, we're gonna do this - I loved you for so long, and all I got out of that was my heart being broken. And then I did go to Afghanistan, and my heart continued to hurt. But then Hannah came along."

"Stop!" she said more firmly, shaking her head as she dropped it, breaking their eye contact. "I don't want to listen anymore."

"Hannah came along," he ignored her. "And she was a light in all the darkness, so I loved her for it. She makes me happy even when you had broken me."

His hands, wrapped around her upper arms, shook her slightly. "Do you know what it was like for me? Do you! To love you so much, and tell you that, and have you just…Walk away!"

"I did that for you!" she shouted, successfully shoving him away from her. He stumbled a little on the wet grass before regaining his balance. "I did that for you, because you deserved a hell of a lot better."

He shook his head, running a hand down his face. "You know what, Bones? Maybe I do," his words cut through her like the sharpest knife. "Maybe I do deserve someone who wouldn't make a decision that important for me."

Booth stepped towards her again, his hands cupping the sides of her wet hair, his forehead dropping to hers, "I loved you. I _loved_ you, and _you_ hurt _me_. I am not the bad guy."

They stared into each other's eyes, their tears mingling with the rain as they fell, their foreheads still pressed together.

"I loved you," he repeated, his voice barely above a whisper.

Brennan's eyes drifted close and she squeezed her eyes shut. "I can't," she said after a while, her tone matching his - reverently pained.

Booth lifted his forehead from hers, pressing a kiss to her forehead because 'I can't', in Brennan-speak, was 'I love you'. His lips lingered on her skin for the longest time, his own eyes fluttering close as he took in the sweet smell of her, not lost even in the rain, until he felt her body start to shake.

Pulling away, he saw that her eyes were rimmed red. He was close enough to see the drops of tears spilling from them. "I have to not be around you right now," she told him on a strangled whisper, stepping away from him. "It's why I wanted to go. I wanted to…I wanted to not see you all the time. Maybe, then, I could learn to not love you anymore."

He tried to tell himself that the fact that his heart broke just a little bit more at that thought, that his own tears began to spill again, meant absolutely nothing.

When that didn't work, he chose to ignore his tears instead.

His hand lifted, automatically going to her wet cheeks to brush at her tears - a stupid thing to do, considering they were standing out in the pouring rain, anyway.

Brennan took a step back, shying away from his touch. "Please, don't," she shook her head, swallowing thickly. "Not when…I just…I can't."

He nodded, as though this was perfectly fine with him.

"I have to go," she whispered, turning away from him and walking away from him towards the Jeffersonian parking lot.

Booth watched her leave, his knees growing so weak that he had to tentatively drag himself to the stone bench just a few feet from where he stood. His eyes were fixed on Brennan's retreating figure, his gaze remaining on the spot where he saw her last long after she'd gone. He stayed seated on the stone bench, unaware of the time, not even really aware of his thoughts, just words they had spoken to each other moments before swimming through his head.

It wasn't until the sky began to darken in the unmistakable sign of evening that he realized that he had stayed frozen in spot the rest of the day. The rain had cleared, what little sun there was had begun to set, his clothes were dry.

He sighed, dropping his gaze from where he had been staring, the image of her walking away still imprinted in his mind for some reason.

Booth lifted his hand to run it down his tired face. He reared his head back, surprised, when his fingers came back wet. He realized with a start that he was still crying.

* * *

"Though lovers be lost, love shall not."

Dylan Thomas.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** Hart Hanson owns Bones, not me.

*MUSIC*

Blank Page by the Smashing Pumpkins

Collide by Howie Day

Drive by Incubus

Feeling A Moment by Feeder

Every Ship Must Sail Away by Blue Merle

* * *

"Anthropologists are a connecting link between poets and scientists; though their field-work among primitive peoples has often made them forget the language of science."

Robert Graves.

* * *

_**August 2011**_

It had been over a month since Brennan's blow-up at Booth regarding the email he had sent rejecting the offer for her to lead the Greece expedition without her knowledge. As she had requested, they hadn't spent more than ten minutes in the same room with each other since.

Brennan had accepted the offer to lead a far less extensive dig in China, and had gone from DC for almost three weeks. She had thought the time away from Booth, no matter how short, would be good for her.

Of course, she hadn't counted on the fact that memories of their failed trip to China a few years back had bombarded her the moment she'd gotten on the plane - all she could think of was how he'd gotten so restless during the flight, as he always had, that he'd snuck into the first class cabin to chat with her several times, and how he'd had that adorable look on his face when he asked her repeatedly if she'd gotten too bored with their work together. She remembered their investigation aboard the plane, and how he'd cheerfully tried to point out the good aspects of their partnership. She thought of the silly banter between them on the flight back, neither of them even touching Chinese land.

Subsequently, these thoughts were followed by much more melancholic ones, her mind wondering unwillingly whether Booth had been as restless on the flight back to DC from Afghanistan, which he'd probably taken with Hannah. Maybe she had been there to distract him, like Brennan once had been.

What stung her the most, asides from Hannah's presence and Booth's feelings for the gorgeous blonde, was the fact that Brennan was now simply one of the women Booth had fallen for in the past. She was simply someone who had the chance of having him in her life forever, but had made the mistake of saying 'no' and was now just…A past love. She was another Rebecca, only while Booth and Rebecca hadn't been truly in love while they were together, Booth and Brennan had been in love but had never truly been together.

She couldn't figure out which was worse.

Her trip to China had, however, given her the clarity she'd needed: she wasn't being herself. She wasn't being the strong Temperance Brennan she had vowed to be the moment her first foster father had laid a hand on her. She had been fifteen years old the first time she had learnt to put away all of her little girl feelings into a steel, impenetrable box and hide it away in the deepest, darkest recesses of her soul. She needed to do the same right now. She needed to remember how to be strong again because crying over a man, even if that man was as good and pure and as one of a kind as Seeley Booth, just wasn't who she was.

She needed to remember how to be herself again. She needed to remember who she was.

So here she was, her first day back in DC, and she was standing over her mother's grave at four thirty in the morning.

Brennan wasn't sure what exactly she was doing at her mother's grave, or what sort of clarity she wished to receive by visiting the cemetery. All she had been doing for the past half hour was stand there, coat bundled up tightly around her, hands in her pockets to keep warm, staring down at the name on the headstone.

Images, moments, spoken and unspoken words alike, floated through her mind at random times, but Brennan never said a word, knowing how useless it would be to try and speak to the dead.

She stood there, and waited.

She could hear someone approaching, and when he was close enough for her to smell the familiar scent, she didn't raise her head to greet him. She didn't know how he knew she was back in town, or that she was at the grave, and she wasn't sure what he wanted. She just didn't want to look up and let him see the disappointment in her eyes that he wasn't the one she wanted to see.

A sigh escaped his lips as he stood next to her, gazing down at the final resting place of the woman they'd both loved. A few moments of silence passed before he spoke.

"You want me to tie him up and burn him?"

Despite the sadness she could still feel, despite how her heart still felt like sharp, tiny fragile pieces of shattered glass swimming around in her chest, Brennan managed a small smile. "No, thanks," she replied idly before turning her head to give her father a quick, thankful glance. Thankful, because even if he wasn't there when she needed a family, he was here now, when she needed an anchor. "I'd miss him too much."

They stood there together in silence for a few more minutes. They never spoke to one another, perhaps a strange sense of camaraderie over lost love hanging in the air between them.

When daylight finally broke, peeking over the edge of the horizon, Brennan exhaled loudly. She turned to leave, not sparing a glance in Max's direction.

Five feet away from Christine's grave, she stopped, turned her head and called out. "Dad?"

Max, still standing in the same spot as before, lifted his head and turned to look at her. "Yeah, sweetheart?"

She didn't even protest at the term of endearment, didn't crinkle her nose or pull a face. Instead, her lips curled into a small, sad smile, the most that she could manage at the moment. "Thanks," was all she said.

Not waiting to hear his reply, because maybe he didn't even have one, and not waiting to see his expression, she turned around again and made her trek back to her car.

She arrived at the Jeffersonian after her three-week long absence at six thirty in the morning, far before anyone had come in. She quickly worked over two sets of remains in Limbo, wanting to get as much done as possible, before giving instructions to her interns so that the rest of the team would know what to do when they came in without consulting her.

She was hidden away in her office, typing away at her desk computer, before any one of her team arrived.

This went on for a long time, days blending together, until Angela decided that enough was enough and went to seek her friend out.

"Bren, sweetie," she heard, but didn't look away from her computer screen. "It's almost lunch time. You want to grab a bite?"

Brennan winced internally.

She might not know most social cues and she might not understand a lot of people, but Angela was different. She had known the beautiful artist since they were both eighteen years old, fresh faced and eager college freshmen at Northwestern. She knew, explicitly, that 'grab a bite', in Angela-speak, meant that she wanted to talk to Brennan about emotions and matters of the heart and have some sort of open talk about whatever feelings she thought Brennan was having.

After all the emotional upheaval she'd gone through in the course of the last few months, and the realization she'd come to in China, Brennan was too emotionally exhausted to go through a heart-to-heart with Angela. It would only be draining to her, and she was sure that it wouldn't resolve anything to revisit it all.

"I'm sorry, Ange, but I've got to finish working on the latest chapter of my book," she informed her friend apologetically, even as she didn't glance up from her work.

Angela sighed once, exasperated at Brennan's behavior. "Bren," she said in a warning tone.

Things had spiraled out of control so quickly. First there was the argument that she'd heard Booth and Brennan had gotten into a month ago, in Brennan's office. Angela herself hadn't been present for it, and neither had Cam, Hodgins or anyone she could remotely count on to give an apt report on said fight. She'd left the moment Booth had entered the room, to give the partners a sense of privacy, but from the rumors going about, she knew the argument had been bad.

Then Brennan had up and left the next day, without giving away anything except for a message on Angela's voicemail telling her that she was on her way to China for three weeks and that she'd see her when she'd get back to DC.

Booth had acted weird the entire time. He'd avoided the Jeffersonian at all costs, even avoided Angela when she'd went to the Hoover to ask what had happened. When they'd gotten a case about a week after Brennan had left DC, he'd shuffled into the Jeffersonian, prim and proper and completely formal. He had been beyond surprised to find that Brennan wasn't at the Jeffersonian, that she'd gone on a dig somewhere. A brief flicker of emotion had passed through his eyes when Cam had informed him of Brennan's three-week-long trip, but it had passed, far too quickly for the others to really notice, then he had been back to being formal.

It was Booth from seven years ago, requesting the assistance from intern-of-the-week, Wendell.

What really cemented Angela's theory that Booth and Brennan had gotten into such a huge fight was the fact that even though Brennan was back in DC, the two partners were still avoiding each other. Booth never came to the Jeffersonian during lunch times and after office hours to check on Brennan anymore - though the artist suspected that a certain blonde journalist had more to do with that than anything else - and the two almost overlapping cases they'd had, Brennan had outright refused to go out into the field with Booth, snapping at her new 'permanent' intern slash assistant, Wendell - who was here to stay until he received his doctorate, much to his relief - to accompany Booth instead.

That was so unlike her, so very uncharacteristic of her, that the first time she'd asked, the whole team had fallen silent for a good twenty seconds before Cam had snapped into action, getting everyone back into work mode.

"You're avoiding talking to me," Angela accused Brennan now.

Brennan finally looked up, her fingers stopping their fast movement across the keyboard, and leveled Angela with an impatient look. "Ange, I'm not avoiding you," she assured her friend. "I just have a lot of work to do."

At Angela's raised eyebrow, she said, "I'm serious. I need to rewrite a few chapters of my latest novel. My publisher's pushing for an earlier release date. I've been getting a lot of inspiration lately so I really want to get to it…I've even requested for a half-day from Cam."

Angela nodded, accepting Brennan's words. "Okay," she relented. "But, you know, Bren, we still need to talk."

"About what?"

Angela gave Brennan an incredulous look. "About what happened between you and Booth, Brennan," she elaborated when her best friend continued to give her a blank stare. "Don't play dumb with me. Something happened. I know it did. I just want to know what, and we'll go from there."

Brennan sighed, shaking her head. She linked her fingers together and stretched her arms out, cracking her bones - her hands were incredibly tired from having typed for hours without stopping.

Angela cringed at the sound, but didn't divert her attention from the anthropologist.

"Angela…" Brennan begun, biting her lower lip as she carefully selected her words. "I know that we talk, a lot, and that we're friends and we're supposed to share…But this is just…It's something I need to keep to myself for a little while."

Seeing that Angela was about to protest, Brennan held up a hand and added, "When I'm ready, I'll tell you. Just not now. Please, Ange."

Angela eyed Brennan for an insurmountable amount of time, considering her words. Finally, noticing the genuine weariness clouding Brennan's eyes, the tired hunch of her shoulders, the determined set of her lips as though she was trying hard not to let it tremble, Angela nodded. "Okay," she conceded softly. "Not now."

Just as she was about to leave, there was a knock on Brennan's door. Brennan's entire body tensed for a fraction of a second before she called out for whomever it was to enter. A flicker of relief passed through her features when Cam poked her head into the office, followed by a sudden wave of disappointment she did her best to tamp down.

"Yes, Cam, how may I help you?"

Cam hid a smile at the anthropologist's formal way of speech. "Dr. Brennan, there's a new body that's just been called in…" she trailed off, unsure what else to say. When Brennan didn't say anything to that, just leaned back in her swivel chair and stared at Cam blankly, she added awkwardly, "FBI business…"

Angela made a face at Cam's horrible attempt at tempting Brennan out of her office.

"Yes, I suspected," Brennan remarked dryly. "I'm sorry, Cam, but I did ask for a half day today," she reminded the woman. "I'm sure Wendell and Clark Edison are more than capable of assisting you and the rest of the team with the retrieval of the remains, as well as with the investigation of a federal case. If not, then I'll be here. Otherwise, I really need to get back to my writing."

Before Cam could reply, however, there was another knock at the door and Wendell appeared in the office. "Dr. Brennan, do you have a minute?" he asked her nervously.

He'd just been informed by Cam mere moments before the pathologist had walked into Brennan's office, that there was a new federal case on their hands. He had worked several of them while Brennan had been away in China, and several more once she'd returned.

While he was usually happy to see Booth, having considered the older man a good friend of his, and was stoked to be getting an opportunity to work cases with the FBI, he wasn't sure he could do it all over again, especially so soon after they'd closed the last one.

All Booth wanted to talk about these days were Dr. Brennan and how she had no right being angry at him for having a girlfriend of his own, how all she ever did was run off to some exotic location somewhere to look at creepy bones, how Booth was tired of all the drama and how he deserved some happiness of his own.

It was non-stop, twenty-four-seven talk of Dr. Brennan this and Dr. Brennan that. And if Wendell ever chimed in to give his own opinion on the matter - no matter if he was defending Brennan or supporting Booth - the agent would instantly clam up and get defensive, as though Wendell had been the one to bring up the subject. Things would get horribly awkward for a few moments, then not two minutes later, Booth would be back to ranting about the anthropologist he called his partner.

Brennan waved him in, silently trying to calm her racing heart. "Yes, Mr. Bray, what is it?" she asked.

Wendell, shuffling his feet in a lame attempt at stalling, blurted out, "I don't think I should go out in the field with Booth anymore."

Brennan blinked at him blankly. "Why not?"

_Oh, where to start_, Wendell thought sarcastically. Out loud, he stammered, "It's just…I'm just your assistant. You're his partner, and I'm…"

"Are you currently having a disagreement with Agent Booth?" Brennan cut him off, her tone as sharp as her gaze.

"What? No…" Wendell trailed off, taken aback by her sudden line of questioning.

"Are you allergic to him in any way? His scent, his abnormal need for copious amounts of hair gel…The fact that he has brown eyes?"

Wendell, still looking as confused as ever, gaped at his mentor. "Um, no, I'm not," he replied quietly.

"He makes you uncomfortable?" Brennan guessed.

"No."

"Intimidates you?"

Wendell fought the urge to sigh, and hung his head slightly. "No, Dr. Brennan, I do not have any problems whatsoever with Agent Booth," he said, only partially lying. He didn't think, however, that 'Agent Booth keeps talking about you and how unfair this whole situation is with you' was a good answer.

Brennan nodded, as though this was confirmation enough. "Then I see absolutely no reason for you not to go out into the field with him," she said dismissively.

"But I…"

"Mr. Bray," Brennan interrupted him sharply, ice blue eyes freezing him in his tracks. "As much as I find your abilities appealing for the lab, might I remind you that I'm your boss?"

He was smart enough to recognize a warning when it was given. Resigned to his fate, he nodded meekly, "Yes. Dr. Brennan. I'll just…Go get my kit."

"Very well," there was a slight hint of satisfaction, triumph, in her tone that a only fair few could detect.

Cam waited until Wendell was out of the room before she turned on Brennan. "Dr. Brennan," she said, in her businesslike tone. "I think it's time you go back out into the field. After all, you are the one contracted to the FBI, not Wendell."

Brennan shook her head, not at all fazed by Cam's tough exterior. Cam had to admit, that still bothered her some days. "I'm far too busy to work on a case right now," she said in a clipped tone. "Perhaps the next one."

Cam rolled her eyes. _Like I haven't heard that one before_, she sighed, exasperated. She could understand a broken heart, having gone through several of her own, one or two standing out the most, but this was getting ridiculous. She couldn't really tell the board of directors the reason her anthropologist wouldn't work with their FBI liaison was because she was nursing a broken heart caused by him.

"I think you'll work on this one," Cam insisted.

Brennan lifted her chin defiantly, blue eyes blazing with a fire that almost made Cam step back. "Well, _I_ don't think that at all," she disagreed.

"What if I said you have to?"

"Then I'd say I don't care."

"What if I pulled the 'I'm your boss' card?"

Brennan shrugged, a small smirk at the corners of her lips. "Then I'd be inclined to quit," she retorted.

Cam sighed, rubbing the space between her eyes with the pads of her fingertips. "Dr. Brennan…" she trailed off, unsure where to even begin to persuade her.

"Dr. Saroyan," Brennan interrupted. "I am not here to simply be an anthropologist. I am here to be a teacher. I am here to allow my students to learn to be the best, from the best. Mr. Bray is still my student. I wish him to learn."

Turning her attention away from her boss and her silent, observing best friend, Brennan focused on her computer screen, fingers already clicking away on the keyboard. "Now, if you'll please excuse me, I have work to do."

Both Angela and Cam realized that Brennan was dismissing them. Not a fan of angering Brennan, Cam simply nodded at the brusque dismissal. "Of course, Dr. Brennan," she said immediately. "If you wish to check on the progress of the investigation, we'd be more than happy to oblige."

Brennan simply hummed distractedly, her attention already focused solely on her novel once more.

Sharing a concerned, knowing look, Angela and Cam left the office, closing the door behind them as they left.

Brennan didn't allow herself even a moment to wallow in her emotions, or take a breath from the exhaustion she felt at narrowly dodging what she knew would have been an emotionally draining talk with Angela, or muse over how lonely she felt. She couldn't allow herself such a thing, because as she'd experienced before her trip to China, if she allowed herself to drown, she would have to fight to seek dry land.

For right now, she was all out of strength to fight.

So instead, she jumped straight into her characters' lives, writing at breakneck speed, concentrating on a life that wasn't her own, on fantasy instead of reality.

* * *

"Well, I have to say, Temperance, that I was stunned by the shocking turn of events in your book," her editor was saying. Brennan merely hummed as she sat curled up on her living room sofa. "And you're sure this is the last one?"

Brennan shrugged. "I don't see how there could be another book after what happens in this one," she replied flatly.

Her editor laughed, dismissing her words. "Oh, please, this is the world of fiction - anything can happen," she said airily. "But this is a good angle to sell - telling people it's the last one."

"It _is_ the last one," Brennan said, more than a little frustrated with her less-than-rational editor.

"Right, of course," she didn't sound like she believed Brennan at all. "The publishers are good to go. Deja Dead will be out by next Monday. Congratulations. We're all very positive about the outcome."

There was talk about launch parties and a couple of promotional events that Brennan barely paid attention to at all, and finally her editor ended the call with a promise to send an email to her account to give her the details on where she had to be and what for.

Despite the fact that all of that sounded pretty exhausting and needlessly frivolous to her, Brennan hung up the phone with a big smile on her face.

She felt happier somehow, her heart much lighter than it had been for quite some time now. It was as though she had closed a chapter of her life, and she was ready to move on. She was ready to move forward. All she had to do was take the first step.

She wasn't naïve - she knew that it would be a long road ahead. She wasn't stupid enough to believe that her feelings for Booth would magically disappear overnight, but rewriting those last few chapters of her novel, giving it that 'shocking turn of events' in the words of her editor, had been almost a cathartic release for her.

Looking down at herself, and realizing that she was dressed in a pair of sweats that she'd worn for two consecutive days, her hair a mess, she decided the first step would probably involve a shower.

A quick look around the place and wincing at the mess her apartment had become, Brennan decided that a shower could wait until she was done cleaning up her place.

She threw the phone aside and jumped to her feet, making her way quickly to her bathroom to grab cleaning supplies.

Two and a half hours later, Brennan made her way out of her bedroom, freshly showered and changed into a cleaner, neater set of clothes. Grabbing her keys from the counter, she grabbed her purse and headed out - she'd gone so long without really paying attention to her life, or her health for that matter, that the only things that were available in her fridge were takeout containers with expired food in them.

A short drive to her usual organic food store told her that she would have to risk going to the store that was halfway between her apartment and Booth's - the store she usually went to was shut down for renovations.

Cursing and grumbling under her breath, Brennan drove in the direction of the grocery store Booth usually frequented. With flaming red cheeks and a furiously pounding heart, she remembered a time not too long ago when she'd be 'helping' Booth with his groceries - he would be picking the most obscenely unhealthy choices, sometimes exaggeratingly so, she suspected, just to tick her off, and she would be ranting at him about the benefits of her organic food store. It was a domestic chore that they strangely took pleasure in doing together, and afterwards, they'd simply go for lunch or 'hang out' as Booth liked to call it.

A voice oddly reminiscent of Sweet's floated through the forefront of her mind, whispering the words 'surrogate relationship' over and over again.

Shaking herself out of it, Brennan scowled as she parked her car next to a beat up old Beetle. _Oh, yes, I'm taking _great_ leaps at moving on from Booth_, she thought to herself sarcastically, climbing out of her car and slamming the door angrily.

She was so incensed that she didn't notice the large, black colored FBI-issued truck parked a few rows down from her.

Brennan stepped through the automatic sliding doors, grabbing a trolley near the entrance and pushing the cart to start her shopping. It took her twice as long as it would have in her usual store because she had to check and make sure everything she put in her cart was organic - or, at the very least, healthy.

She was in the cereal aisle, browsing for some healthy wheat cereal, when the unthinkable happened.

She felt her back hit something solid as she walked backwards, scanning the aisles. Immediately, she jumped away. Turning around, she found herself face to face with Seeley Booth. Just like that, her heart broke into a sprint, racing so fast that she felt a little nauseous, her skin heating up.

He was dressed so casually - just a pair of jeans and a Steelers t-shirt - that it brought an ache to her chest. She missed spending time with him, not just as his partner, but as his best friend. She missed that so very much.

She stared at his shirt a little too long, attempting to force the tears away. Thankfully, her years spent in foster care, ostracized by not only her foster families, but her peers, had given her strength and the ability to compartmentalize her emotions when it really counted. She held onto that strength, her eyes completely dry as she finally locked her gaze with those chocolate brown orbs.

"Hi," Booth whispered, looking as shocked as she was to see her there.

She hated the awkwardness.

Forcing a smile onto her lips, and hoping that it didn't look as forced as it felt, she replied, "Hi."

_Great conversation, Brennan_, she complimented herself sarcastically.

Silence stretched on for a few long moments. Booth spoke just as Brennan was about to grab her cart and excuse herself. "So…You're here," he said, and mentally slapped himself on how lame what he'd thought was a great ice breaker sounded like.

Brennan raised one eyebrow, her face impassive. It reminded him of the earlier months of their partnership, the way she was acting around him. That thought made him more nervous than anything else, including the icy stare she was giving him.

"Yes," was her curt reply. A sudden thought rocked through her, her stomach clenching violently, bile almost rising up her throat. "Are you…I mean, Hannah's…?"

"No, no," he shook his head, understanding her meaning even though her words were broken. "She's got a job interview."

She wasn't sure which was worse - seeing Hannah being domestic with Booth at the supermarket, taking her place so obviously, or knowing that Hannah was definitely staying since she was looking for job right here in DC. She supposed she should be thankful that she didn't have to experience both in one fell swoop.

"Oh, right, okay, sure," she nodded. "That makes sense."

"Yeah." He nodded at the box in her hands. "Wheaties?"

She shrugged. "Healthiest thing I can find here," she gestured at the wide array of cereal boxes, off of which were colorful and boasted the most sugary mixtures possible.

Booth simply grinned, swiping a Count Chocula box near her head. He shook the box at her. "You sure you don't want all this chocolatey goodness?"

A brief, small smile appeared on her lips at his childish behavior. "No, Booth, that's completely unhealthy," she chided.

For a moment, it was like they were back two years ago, back to being 'Booth and Bones'.

Booth chuckled, shrugging, throwing the box into his own cart. "Suit yourself," he teased. "But don't come running to me when your Wheaties don't taste as yummy as my Count Chocula."

Brennan rolled her eyes, prompting a small laugh from Booth.

Silence fell upon them once more, easy smiles turning into awkward glances and shuffling feet.

"Well…" Brennan said, at the exact same time Booth spoke up.

"I…I didn't know you'd be here," he said, wincing slightly as his words came out.

Brennan gave him a confused look. "Of course you didn't," she said matter-of-factly. "I don't have a fixed schedule on grocery shopping, and you aren't psychic."

"No. No, I meant…You don't usually shop here."

Her eyes hardened completely, mask falling into place. "Well, I certainly didn't come here in some horrendous attempt to bump into you!" she crossed her arms over her chest, defensive.

"I didn't-"

"I didn't even know you'd be here, Booth," she interrupted, not allowing him to speak and defend his own misinterpreted, awkwardly spoken words.

"I know th-"

"What, you think I'm stalking you or something!" she glared heavily at him. "God, the ego on you!"

"Hey, I didn't say that at a-"

"My organic food store is undergoing some sort of renovation, and I needed groceries," she huffed. "What, is that a crime now?"

He threw up his hands in the air, frustrated. "No, okay!" he shook his head, frowning. "Jeez. I didn't mean it like that, Bones."

She blinked at him, unsure if she believed him entirely. "Oh."

"I just…I haven't seen you," he cleared his throat. "I haven't…We haven't really…Spoken for some time now."

Refusing to acknowledge what she knew he meant, she tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "We spoke on Friday," she reminded him in a tone that suggested she thought he wasn't particularly bright. "Remember?"

He gave her an exasperated look, "Saying 'good night' to each other while Hurricane Brennan flew out of the lab past the rest of us isn't 'speaking', Bones."

She shook her head. "I don't-"

"Look, can we just…" he interrupted her, sighing at the end, hanging his head. "I don't want to fight anymore. Okay? I just…Can we please…"

Booth wasn't sure how he should phrase his question. What was he supposed to ask her? 'Please don't be heartbroken anymore'? That wasn't right. He wished more than anything he could take her pain away, but he had some pain, too. Pain that he thought was long gone.

All he wanted was for them to be _them_ again, but he just didn't know how to ask that of her.

"Let's go to the diner," he suggested suddenly, an idea sparking in his mind. "Let's sit, have lunch…Just…Hang out."

Despite the fact that that was what she'd missed doing, and despite the fact that her heart skipped a beat at his invitation, Brennan was less than willing. "Booth, I just…I have a lot to do today," she lied, trying to pull away.

"Bones," his voice was soft and his tone was low and his eyes were searching, desperate, pleading. "Please."

She sighed, looking away, her eyes squeezed shut. "Fine," she relented, wanting to cry because she knew she could never say no to him. Not now, with her heart all messed up and her emotions all tangled. "Diner."

He smiled, the sight of that happy grin making her pain ebb slightly for the moment, this smile, this one smile, she could claim as her own.

Booth had three different types of ice cream melting away in his cart and she wasn't done with her shopping yet, so they agreed to meet at the diner in an hour for lunch. They waved goodbye, their carts going in opposite directions.

Her heart was still pounding too fast twenty minutes later as she paid for her things.

She drove back to her apartment, putting away the groceries at an alternating speed. One minute, she would move as fast as she could, not wanting to be late to meet Booth. The next, Hannah would pop into her mind and her hands and legs would slow. The last time she had been to the diner had been that day when Booth had told her about Hannah, about being in love. She hadn't been back since. Just that thought alone made her want to cancel. Or, at the very least, find someone eligible to make her forget for a few minutes before she had to meet him.

In the end, she did neither.

She looked into the mirror in her hallway to make sure she didn't look too sloppy, and made sure she still smelled nice, and went out to head to the diner.

Booth was already waiting for her in their usual booth. That was both a welcomed gesture, a reminder of their years of partnership, of friendship, of possibilities, and a horrible flashback to their meeting after a year apart.

Nevertheless, she slipped into her usual seat opposite him.

Booth had been a nervous wreck as he waited for Brennan to show at the diner. His apartment had been empty when he'd arrived back after his trip to the store. Parker was back at his mother's and Hannah still wasn't back from her interview, which he was glad for. His insides had been rolling around unsettlingly in his stomach and he didn't think he could explain to his girlfriend why exactly he was so pale and shaking.

He hadn't really seen Brennan since their fight outside in the gardens at the Jeffersonian. She had stormed off, and he'd sat there on that bench, crying without even realizing it. He'd avoided going there, or calling her, and even dodged her stubborn best friend when she came knocking at the Hoover.

When a case file landed on his desk, he had been more than shocked to discover she had left the country. A moment of panic passed through him - what if she'd somehow managed to get the museum people to let her go on that dig? Was she really gone for two years? Then Cam had inadvertently soothed his fears, mentioning that she'd be back by three weeks.

Even when she had returned, he had gone with Wendell to crime scenes. Wendell was normal enough, '_friend_' enough, that he had allowed himself the very rare opportunity to ramble out loud in his car while he was present. He hadn't necessarily wanted Wendell's opinion, but at least he wasn't talking to himself.

All he'd planned on doing when he'd picked up his car keys that morning was buy some groceries - he'd forgotten what it was like to have someone else living with him. Hannah didn't exactly eat some of the things his son did, and the rest of the things in his fridge was mostly enough just for Booth himself.

It had struck him, when he'd slipped the key into the ignition, that over a year ago, Brennan would show up at his place unexpected on a Saturday morning, her arms loaded with a bag of groceries she ranted about him not having - vegetables, tofu, that horrible beer that only she liked. For a week after that, his fridge would have his things and hers, enough to keep them both happy whenever she came over to do paperwork or watch movies or play cards or get drunk. Then another Sunday would come and she'd do it all over again.

He'd loved that system. It was a good system.

Now everything had changed and some moments, moments like when he was standing at the cereal aisle, lost in memory of her shaking her head, hands on her hips, lecturing him about healthy food choices while he chucked three different kinds of Poptarts into his cart before he made some sort of a joke and she'd laugh, he'd place his arm around her shoulders and grinned while she tried to strike a deal to make him mac and cheese if he promised to buy whole wheat bread…Those were the moments he wondered if change was a good thing at all.

But he'd seen her at the store, and the first thought to cross his mind was 'she's beautiful'. His heart had clenched so painfully at the thought of missing another chance to rectify things with her, so he'd asked her to go to the diner with him, have lunch with him. All the way back to his apartment, he couldn't decide if that had been a smart move or a stupid one.

The moment he sat down in the diner, Della appeared by his table. "Just for one today, hon?" she asked him, notebook still in her pocket - she didn't need to write down his orders, having been so familiarized with it already.

Booth shook his head. Of course Della would assume it would be just him. Asides from that first time, when he'd introduced Hannah to Brennan, he hadn't brought her back there. They'd opted for a café right around the block from his apartment if they wanted to eat out. The diner, he felt, was too…Crowded with people he worked with. Not only would they run the risk of seeing Brennan there, they'd run the risk of meeting the rest of the squints. He didn't find that idea appealing at all.

"No, two," he said, and Della's expression seemed almost reproachful. "Bones will be here in a minute."

Della smiled brightly then. "Oh!" she chirped. "Okay, then. I'll just go get your coffee."

Booth nodded. "Thanks, Della," he said distractedly, eyes already scanning the outside through the glass wall, flicking to the door just in case he'd missed her approach.

She arrived just a few minutes after him, looking just as flawless as she had back at the supermarket, her eyes looking just as sad. She smiled at him as she sat down, but remained silent as she shrugged off her coat and draped it over the back of her chair, Della placing a cup of steaming hot coffee in front of her.

"So…" Booth said lamely once Della had left, promising their food would arrive soon.

She blinked once. "So," she repeated flatly.

For the first time since he could remember, he lowered his gaze when she fixed her steely eyes on him. They sat in silence, picking at their food when Della brought it over, shaking her head and muttering under her breath as she walked away.

"Look, Bones," he sighed, when he thought he would suffocate with all the thick, tension-filled silence surrounding them. "I just…I want us to be us again."

There. He'd said it.

Brennan raised her head from the salad she had been intently staring at for the past fifteen minutes. She blinked at him, "I don't know what that means."

Despite their situation, their tense, awkward situation, a smile tugged at his lips involuntarily, growing until he was smiling so hard he might as well be laughing. "God, I've missed hearing that," he admitted.

She smiled, too, for a moment but she remembered their predicament faster than he did and her smile slipped once more.

"That," he said, gesturing towards her frown. "That's what I mean. Bones, I want us to be partners again. I don't want us to be…Like this. It's just, it's making me, I just can't do it," he stuttered, unable to really find the words to express how damn uncomfortable it was for him not to have her in his life. How painful it was.

Brennan let out a breath of air from between her lips. "It's not that simple, Booth," she said finally.

"Why not?" he argued. "I want my best friend back, Bones," he pleaded in a softer tone.

Brennan turned her head away, looking out of the glass wall so that Booth wouldn't see her own eyes - she knew they would match his, soft and exposed, and she knew she had tears in them. "I want that, too," she admitted quietly once the tears were gone from her eyes, turning back to look at him.

He nodded. "So…So can't we just try?" he asked her, his tone almost desperate.

"Try?" she repeated, her expression blank.

"Try," he said firmly. "Can't we be us again?"

She tilted her head to the side. "Try to be partners again," she clarified, because she was sure that was what he meant.

He nodded, "Yeah, partners." That was one of the most important role he had - being Temperance Brennan's partner. He would fight tooth and nail for it and he didn't think he'd ever give it up willingly. "And friends."

Brennan stared at him for a long moment. Hadn't it just been this morning when she'd admitted to herself that she missed his friendship, his presence? So maybe she was still a little heartbroken by him, and maybe the thought of seeing him with his love, hearing about how happy she made him, made Brennan feel sick to her stomach…But that didn't change the fact that she simply missed him.

Taking a deep breath, she braved her way through her reply. "We can try," she offered, letting him know without words that she wasn't promising anything.

But it was enough for him, and he grinned at her widely, not all of it genuine, if only to cheer them both up. "Great!" he said animatedly.

They began to eat, slow sentences forming in between bites, an attempt to get back to where they were, without really being back to where they were.

Small talk about a desk jockey at the FBI who somehow managed to cause a blackout for the entire building on his first week turned into an entertaining tale on Parker's latest soccer game. It was easy to forget, when it was just the two of them there, that there wasn't anything standing in the way. It was easy to convince themselves that they were still making their way towards eventually when they were laughing it up, drinking cup after cup of coffee long after their lunch was finished.

The sky actually began to dim outside, showing the beginning of the end of the day, before Brennan gave a start. "Oh, wow," she murmured. "It's…Past five already. I didn't even realize."

He hadn't, either, but he didn't say a word, just gazed at her with a happy smile on his lips. He was about to suggest they just stayed at the diner and have dinner since they still had so much to catch up on - technically, they'd been apart for longer than just a few weeks. They never really got to talk much after their year apart, and he had forgotten just how much he loved spending time with her. He remembered he loved it, he'd just forgotten how much she affected him - her radiant smile, her husky laugh, her almost obsessive need to give an anthropological standpoint on every single thing they talked about.

But just as he opened his mouth to speak, his cell phone rang. A look at the caller ID told him it was Hannah.

Brennan must've seen something in his face because she nodded her head, realization flooding her eyes. "Hannah?" she guessed correctly.

He nodded, ending the call and sending it to voicemail. "You know, I don't have to…We could just stay here," he offered, though his offer was significantly less inviting than it could've been if he'd asked before the call.

Brennan gave him a smile. "No, Booth, you should go home," she said lightly, throwing some money on the table for her coffee and standing up. He copied her actions, watching as she pulled on her coat. "I should head home, too."

He followed her out the door, not unlike a lost puppy. "But…Us," he stammered incoherently. "We'll still…Are we…?"

Brennan laughed a little, though the sound was nervous and without humor. "I'll see you tomorrow, partner," she said reassuringly.

His smile was blinding, and it made her heart ache in the most painful way. She turned away, wondering why it was that she had the ability to control the urge to cry nearly twenty years ago when her parents disappeared but she couldn't muster the same strength now.

She was about to walk away, but Booth reached out, snagging her wrist. She halted immediately, turning around as his warm hand closed around her slim wrist. She gave him a questioning look, a frown on her lips.

"Booth?"

He stood there, his fingers still clasped around her wrist, his mouth opening and closing as he tried to find the right words. Despite the fact that she had told him she'd see him the next day, and despite the fact that they had just spent hours sitting at their usual table at the diner, talking and laughing and smiling together like old times…It all felt unfinished to him.

Something bubbled in his stomach, formed a lump in his throat, boiled on his tongue, as though there was something he wanted to say to her, something he needed to say, but his mind just couldn't process it and he was left speechless, just staring into her pretty eyes, wondering how they'd let things turn out the way they did.

But she knew him better than she'd ever known herself, which was probably why she knew he was in love with her before she'd ever known she was in love with him, too.

So as he stood there, gaping at her like a fish out of water, she sighed. Her head dropped for a moment, her eyes fixed on the granite beneath their feet. Then she lifted her head, blue eyes finding his own warm brown ones, and she uttered the words he needed to say but couldn't find.

"I miss you."

They were spoken so softly, so tenderly, that it broke his heart just a little.

Brown eyes swimming with emotion, Booth pulled her close, wrapping her up in a tight hug. She felt so familiar to him, yet so foreign and none of it made any sense except the way she wrapped her arms around his torso and rested her cheek against his beating heart.

She closed her eyes, breathing in the masculine scent of him that she'd missed so damn much. Booth stayed there in her embrace for as long as he could, his eyes squeezed shut as well, resting his cheek on the top of her head. Ducking his head, he pressed a kiss to her hair.

"I miss you, too."

Brennan turned her head, burying her nose into his shirt, fighting her hardest to swallow back a sob. It was a constant battle these days, to keep reminding herself that she wasn't the kind of woman to burst into tears at the drop of a hat, or over a man.

She took in a few more deep breaths, filling her lungs with his scent, before pulling away. He wanted her to just stay with him, but he couldn't say that. He wasn't able to say that before and he definitely couldn't say that now, when everything had changed so much.

Instead, his warm hands cupped her cheek.

The concern in his eyes were like sharp glass shards stabbing her all over. She didn't want his pity and it was _humiliating_ to think that he was the happy, moved on one, worried about her mental health, the stuck, heartbroken one.

"I'll be okay, Booth," she assured him. He didn't look convinced but she wasn't going to allow either of them to dwell on whether or not she was just fine. "And you were right," she continued, causing him to raise his eyebrows, confused. "I had no right to be mad at you. I was just hurt."

He shook his head, his eyes squeezed close for a moment before he opened them. She saw him open his mouth, but she wasn't interested in hearing him apologize for moving on, or to say he was sorry she loved him. It would be too much.

She interrupted him before he could speak, "Look, if you could move on, I can too, right?"

Booth's mouth snapped shut and he simply stared at her for a moment. There was an emotion in his eyes that was indiscernible to her. He shifted his weight uncomfortably from one foot to another and back again. "Uh, right," he muttered.

She nodded, taking his half-hearted words as whole-hearted confirmation. "I'll be just fine," she attempted a smile.

He finally released her, his hands going into his pockets like a lost schoolboy, and she nodded once before turning to walk away.

She took three steps away from him before she stopped, turning back around with a furiously pounding heart. "And Booth," she added, causing him to look up at her once more. "For what it's worth…I'm glad you're happy."

That same indiscernible look was back in his eyes, but he merely nodded. "Thanks, Bones," he said quietly.

He stood there, on the middle of the sidewalk, and watched as she walked further and further away from him.

* * *

Déjà Dead had been out for a week, and the response had been explosive. None of her friends had said anything about the book other than they had enjoyed it and that even though they didn't see the twist coming, they thought it was written well. She'd accepted their compliments, just as she accepted praise from her publishers and praise from reviewers.

The only thing that annoyed her was that, with publishing a book, especially one that was in a popular series like hers was, came a whole slew of publicity she needed to endure: book signings and the launch party and appearances on TV talk shows… The reason she'd written the book - or, at least, rewritten the last few chapters of it - was so she could pen down her emotions, morph it into something that would fit the fictional lives of her fictional characters, and move on.

She didn't want to dwell on Kathy and Andy, but publishing the book had made it difficult not to.

Oh, the irony.

A week had passed and her interns were still looking at her as though she was a specimen in a jar, and Angela still looked as though she was about to corner her in her office, lock the door and make them have a heart to heart while they're intoxicated on truth serum.

The only thing she had to be thankful for was that even though she was now 'partners and friends again' with Booth, she hadn't really seen much of him in the past week.

They hadn't had a case, though he'd stopped by once the very next day after their lunch, and once more right before her launch party. That particular visit had been a little awkward because before, he would be the one to accompany her to launch parties, to keep her entertained when she was ready to fall asleep standing up with witty jokes she didn't understand but laughed at anyway and cracks at 'stuffy rich people' he disliked.

Now, as half her team were gathered around an examination table, Wendell and two of her interns - Daisy and Mr. Nigel-Murray - present as well as Angela who was sketching on a stool nearby, a body from Limbo spread out before them, a learning experience, Booth stormed into the lab.

He had just now finished reading Déjà Dead, literally twenty minutes ago. He had gotten the book pre-ordered, just like he had every single book she'd published before. Even that first one, which she'd published after their first case together but before they were partners. But he wasn't the world's fastest reader and it had taken him an entire week to read it, and he had been shocked as hell.

Sure, there had been rumors that this would be the last Kathy and Andy novel, but he hadn't believed it. It was printed in newspapers and gossip rags and he even caught a headline in a gossip website once…He saw a statement released by her editor on her website, but he didn't believe that either. How could he when he knew she didn't even know she had a website? For all he knew, these people were all lying.

He wouldn't believe it unless it came out of her mouth, unless she told him. And she would, too, because the last Kathy and Andy book would be something epic. It would be the end of an era. It was big and she'd tell him. It wasn't like they spoke to each other several times every day like they did before, but they'd still seen each other twice in the past week, and they'd talked for hours at the diner before that.

She would've told him, he'd convinced himself, except that she didn't tell him and now he had finished reading the last Kathy and Andy book that would ever be published and he was shocked enough to get the hell out of his office and drive over to the Jeffersonian.

He stormed into the lab, his eyes immediately zeroing on Brennan's unmistakable auburn curls. He made his way towards the platform, just barely swiping his card as he ran up the steps. The others on the platform noticed him coming, though Brennan just kept her head down, keeping up an endless spiel as she addressed her students.

He absolutely hated that she wasn't the first one to notice him - just a little over a year ago, she would be the one to sense his presence before anyone had even caught sight of him. She'd deny it 'til her dying day, but he'd noticed the way she would straighten her posture and look up from whatever she was doing the moment he was in proximity, even if her back was to him. He recognized that sixth sense because he was the same way with her.

But he was far too stunned to really focus on all of this. Instead, he simply stood there on the platform, gaping at her like an idiot, hating the sympathy on everyone else's faces because they were super smart people with super fast reading abilities and had come to the conclusion of the last Kathy and Andy book way before he did. They knew why he was there.

"You killed me!" he blurted out to Brennan.

She didn't look up from the skull she was bent so close to, didn't jump as though she'd known he was standing there the whole time, and definitely didn't react to what he'd just said. Instead, she simply murmured calmly, "I highly doubt that, Booth. If I'd killed you, you wouldn't be standing there interrupting me at work."

He shook his head, intent on hashing this out now. He had no idea where this was coming from - he was normally a much more private person than this. _She gets under my skin_, he thought to himself. _She gets under my skin like no one else can. I forgot about that, too_. "No, no, no," he said. "You killed me. You stuck me in a car that freakin' exploded!"

Finally, Brennan straightened up. She turned her icy blue eyes on him, quirking an eyebrow at his words. "Are you talking about the death of Agent Andy Lister in the book?"

"First of all - _Special_ Agent," he corrected her, causing her to roll her eyes. "And secondly…Yeah! That's what I'm talking about! What the _hell_ was that all about, Bones!"

She rolled her eyes again, doing the perfect imitation of a thirteen year old. "Oh, my God, Booth. Would you get over that?" she said dismissively. "First and foremost, Andy Lister is a fictional character. I had the inspiration to write the story loosely based on our first case together, but you are _not_ the inspiration or model for Andy. He's much less irritating than you are."

He narrowed his eyes in her direction. "Yeah, uh-huh," he said disbelievingly. "You _killed_ me!" he repeated incredulously.

Brennan tilted her head back, a look of frustration on her face. Exhaling loudly, she glared at Booth. "Say it with me, Booth," she said in a condescending tone. "You are not Andy Lister. You are Seeley Booth. I 'killed' Andy, in a fictional world where people bleed ink. I didn't kill Booth. You are still alive."

When Booth merely glared at her, she repeated, "Get over it."

Angela stepped in, deciding that this would be a good time as any to do just that. She had been waiting to speak with Brennan - to have an honest, open talk which she knew Brennan needed because as brilliant as the woman was, she needed help when it came to the matters of the heart - ever since her return from China.

She knew Brennan had avoided talking to her, and Angela had given her that because sometimes all you needed was some space to gain some strength back after a broken heart. Personally, that had never been Angela's style. She was a 'go to best friend Bren and have a good wallow, grieve, then have lots of one night stands' type of person, but she also knew that 'space' was more Brennan's style.

But then, all of a sudden, Booth was strolling into the Jeffersonian, without a case, smiling and having small talk with Brennan. It wasn't what they were, but it was a small step, and Brennan had avoided talking about that, too.

Then Déjà Dead came out and Angela understood why.

"Regardless of whether or not Booth is Andy-"

Brennan interrupted Angela with a vehement, "He's not."

Angela nodded once to show that she'd acknowledged her - arguing about how Booth was Andy wasn't a priority at the moment. "I've got to wonder, though, sweetie…" Angela said delicately. "Why'd you kill off the hunky FBI stud?"

Daisy, previously just a silent intern in the background (an unusual thing for her), spoke up. "Are we still talking about Andy?" she asked to no one in particular.

Brennan shrugged, ignoring Daisy's question. "I felt it was time," was her vague reply.

"It was time!" Booth repeated, his tone incredulous. "What sort of an answer is that! He's the main character, Bones!"

"No, he's the partner of the main character," she corrected him as though he was one of her students who had given her the wrong answer. "The books are about Kathy, Booth."

"No," he disagreed immediately. "They're about Kathy and her partnership with Andy." Shaking his head, he threw his hands up in frustration. "Seriously, Bones. Did you lose your mind or something?"

Typical of her, Brennan took the question seriously. "No, my mind is fully intact," she answered matter-of-factly. At Booth's accusing glare, she relented slightly, sighing. "Look, I thought it was a necessary move. Kathy and Andy couldn't stay partners forever."

"What? What not?" he sounded defensive.

She gave him a look that suggested the answer was such an obvious thing, he was slow for not understanding. "Because, Booth," her tone was exasperated. "They're at a stalemate. Over time, they grew to become not just work partners, but they ingrained themselves subconsciously into each other's lives until they were permanent fixtures."

And, just like that, they weren't talking about Kathy and Andy anymore.

"But neither would take the step forward and neither would back down from what they had, whether they admit to it or not," she continued, her voice growing less steely and softening as their gazes locked. "I can't keep writing Kathy and Andy books where they're solving crimes and having meaningless sex all the time."

"Why not?" his voice was equally soft, his eyes unblinking as he moved closer to her. The others on the platform were entirely silent as they watched the exchange. "It sounds like a good life to me."

She felt a small smile slip onto her lips. "No, it doesn't," she countered softly, and though he didn't admit it out loud, she saw the truth in his eyes.

He gave a small shake of his head. "Kathy and Andy…They…They're special," he insisted. "Nothing between them could be meaningless."

She shrugged. "Maybe not," she could concede to at least that. "But it's not enough. And at some point, it needs to stop."

Doing something she had never done before, she took a step back from him. "I choose it to stop now," she added quietly.

He stared at her for a long moment, emotions passing through his handsome features at breakneck speed. Finally, he swallowed, and took a step backwards of his own. She nodded, as though he'd given her some sort of a signal, some sort of a sign.

"You could've just…Given them a happy ending, Bones," he insisted, his voice louder now, back to pretending that they were just talking about Kathy and Andy. Nothing more. "Even if you did get bored writing about Kathy and Andy."

She shook her head. "No, I don't see that happening," she said, and not one person in a room full of geniuses mentioned the present tense in her sentence.

"So you killed me - him - off instead?" he demanded. "That was your brilliant solution."

She didn't comment on his slip up, choosing to ignore it instead. "Yes," she replied curtly.

"Bones!"

"Look," she said firmly, interrupting what looked to be yet another burgeoning rant from him. "The way I see it, watching Andy leave her was…Monumental for Kathy. It jolted her out of whatever fantasy she'd been living in all these years. And when she buried him-"

He couldn't help himself - he had to interrupt her. "_Buried_ him?" he scoffed, crossing his arms across his muscular chest. "You put him in a car explosion, Bones! There was no _body_ to bury!"

Brennan ignored this, continuing on as though he hadn't spoken at all, "When she buried him, she came to a very difficult crossroads. She could either continue wishing for something that is…Impossible, or she could move on. Kathy realizes that it's the hardest thing she's ever had to do, the most painful thing, but she turned and walked away, saying goodbye to Andy. She knows that she and Andy would never be together now. Even if she didn't believe in a higher power or in Heaven, at least she knows that Andy was no longer in pain like he would be if he'd made it out alive…He had moved on and she had to, as well. Andy was gone from her life forever and as painful as it was, she had to try and move on."

Brennan stopped, taking in a deep breath as though she had forgotten to breathe while she'd spoken. Looking up, she realized that everyone on the platform had gone completely silent, staring at her with wide eyes. Hiding her blush expertly, she finished with, "And _that_ is why I killed Andy."

No one knew what to say, so Angela broke the heavy silence by muttering, "Pretty heavy stuff, Bren."

Booth huffed, obviously still unhappy about the ending of the book and, ultimately, the ending of the series. "Well, it was stupid," he retaliated childishly. "No one's going to buy this."

To his utter irritation, Brennan piped up cheerfully (as cheerful as Temperance Brennan could get, anyway) with, "Actually, although my editor and my publisher were shocked, they seemed to think this was a great idea. And my book agent told me that my decision to kill Andy had garnered a very strong reaction from fans. Some went with what I decided without a problem, and some argued about it…But she said that even if they reacted negatively, the fact that they apparently cared enough to be having these 'fan debates' or whatever means that they are all still highly invested in the series."

Angela nodded at Brennan's words. "No publicity's bad publicity," she sang out the cliché.

Brennan blinked at her. "Yeah, I don't know what that means," she drawled. "But book sales skyrocketed."

Booth, still unrelenting, pushed forward. "Everyone knows Kathy and Andy were meant to be together, Bones," he pressed. "You can't just go killing him off."

Their eyes connected again, and once again, it was as though the whole world disappeared and there wasn't a discussion about Kathy and Andy, but a discussion on the possibility of the two of them being killed off in a fiction book meant for all the world to read.

Their moment was broken when an unfamiliar voice called out, "Temperance!"

Jolted out of their silent conversation, Booth and Brennan both turned towards the source of the voice, startled. Booth frowned as he noticed a man standing below the platform, smiling too wide for his liking and waving at Brennan with a little too much enthusiasm than he cared for.

Brennan, however, seemed to have absolutely no problems whatsoever with this strange man no one had ever seen before smiling and waving and calling her by her first name. In fact, she smiled right back, holding up her index finger to signal for him to give her another minute. He nodded, moving away slightly from the platform.

Brennan turned back to face Booth, who had a confusing mix of emotions rolling about in nauseating waves in his stomach.

"No one can wait forever for eventually to come around, Booth," she said, startling him at her use of his own words from years ago. "Sometimes, you've got to move on."

_You did_, were the words she didn't say out loud but he heard all the same. _Maybe it's time I did, too_.

They remained eye contact for a few more seconds before Brennan broke it. She turned towards the others, who immediately turned their gaze away, pretending that they hadn't been watching the entire exchange with morbid interest.

"I've fully pieced together the skull, Angela," she announced unnecessarily. "See if you can get a successful facial reconstruction from that."

Angela nodded, giving Brennan a small smile. "Sure, sweetie," she replied softly, unable to help her gaze from flickering to Booth for a brief moment.

Brennan turned towards her interns, "The rest of you, I'd like you to work on this set of remains - put together your own individual data, record your findings and I'll review them when I return."

"Yes, Dr. Brennan."

"Of course, Dr. Brennan."

Brennan moved away from the examination table and from Booth. She snapped off her latex gloves, speaking to no one in particular as she threw the discarded gloves into the bin by the railing, "Please inform Cam that I've gone for an early lunch."

Without a glance backwards at Booth, Brennan moved towards the stairs, descending them quickly.

Booth stared at the empty space Brennan had been standing at just moments ago for a long time after she'd gone. He turned his head around, just in time to catch Brennan greeting the mystery man with a large smile and a kiss on the cheek.

He watched as the man said something, something Booth was too far to hear and seeing too many red splotches in his vision to lip read, and Brennan grinned even wider, throwing her head back and laughed.

His stomach grew even more unsettled as he watched him offer her his arm - his arm, like they were in some 19th century movie - and she took it, still smiling like it was the best thing anyone's ever done for her.

"Jealous, sweetie?" Angela's voice in his ear made him jump though he didn't look away from Brennan and her…Companion.

_Only because I don't want to see that smug look I know she's wearing right now_, he convinced himself. "No," he replied, maybe a little harsher than he'd intended. Softening his tone, he added, "I'm not. I just…I didn't know she was seeing anyone."

Angela sighed a little dreamily. "Yeah," she murmured. "She met him at her book's launch party. He's the first guy Brennan's been with for a long time that wasn't just for sex, you know?"

He flinched and turned his head slightly to shoot her a brief glare. "Do you really need to say that? Out loud? To people?" he asked.

Angela smirked, but didn't answer his question. Instead she turned back to look at Brennan and her _date_. "He's dreamy, no?" was all she said before she left him standing there by himself.

He turned to look at his partner again, jaw clenching as he realized that Brennan and her date were now kissing passionately right there in the middle of the lab. Booth wrapped his fingers around the railing, his arms stretched on either side of him, and rested his weight against it.

As he watched on, Brennan and her date broke apart, both of them smiling widely at each other. Arm in arm, they walked away from the spot they'd just been making out in and headed towards the lab's exit.

_I'm not jealous_, he scoffed, remembering Angela's accusation. _I'm just protective. She's a grown woman. I'm a grown man. We've both moved on, apparently. I'm good_.

He spent the rest of the day trying his hardest to convince himself that the only reason he felt like someone had run him over with a truck was because he hated the ending to the Kathy and Andy series.

* * *

"Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go."

Hermann Hesse.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N PLEASE READ:** So I've re-uploaded this chapter with quite a lot of changes here. What went down with Angela and Brennan in the original chapter still happens here but I've changed Kira's personality. Mostly because I re-read the chapter and cringed at how high school I've made her out to be the first time. And, you know, as oblivious as Brennan is all the time, she still has a knack for choosing the best people to get close to - Angela and Booth, for example. I've also changed HOW Brennan and Kira met up with one another again since it seems strange that she'd show up out of the blue like that. The inspiration for their meet-up this time around came from a CASTLE episode named 'A Rose For Everafter'. I mean, I didn't steal everything from it but there are similarities.

I'm introducing a new character here. At the beginning of chapter 1, I mentioned that Brennan will be getting back an old lover of hers, one who happens to be female. I know that in the series Brennan said she had never been with a woman, but I'm tweaking it a little.

Please let me know if you enjoyed this chapter.

Timeline:

Freshman year of college: Brennan meets Angela (I don't know when they met or remember if they touched on this in the series, but I always thought that they met in college)

Sophomore year of college: Brennan and Angela meets Kira Fusco, their new roommate.

P.S. Kira's picture in on my profile. Imagine her as Melinda Clarke, with red hair.

Also please note that a) I'm very sorry for what I'm about to do in this chapter, b) there will **NOT** be any love scenes except between Booth and Brennan somewhere down the line and c) please bear in mind that there is a point in Brennan's relationship with Kira which you might understand by the end of this chapter or in the coming few chapters; I'm not just putting Kira in there to make things more interesting or anything like that.

**Disclaimer:** Hart Hanson owns Bones, not me.

*MUSIC*

**Come Back Home by Holly Conlan**

**The Day Before the Day by Dido**

**No Way Back by 8MM**

**Edge of the Ocean by Ivy**

**Stay Where You Are by Ambulance LTD**

**I Tell Myself by Correatown**

* * *

"When a love comes to an end, weaklings cry, efficient ones instantly find another love, and the wise already have one in reserve."

Oscar Wilde.

* * *

_**September 2011**_

To everyone's immense relief - and surprise, for those who weren't made aware of Booth and Brennan's 'reconciliation' - the tension seemed to die down within a matter of weeks.

Booth didn't speak of Hannah around Brennan, knowing that it was probably the last thing she needed, having gone through several heartbreaks of his own in the past. He didn't mention the mystery man Brennan had been kissing at the Jeffersonian, though he was very happy when, after a few more appearances, the mystery man seemed to have vanished completely.

Brennan, on the other hand, found herself able to compartmentalize enough these days to focus on her work during the day and give a little information to Angela during one of her girl talks after work. She had been best friends with Angela ever since they were both eighteen years old college freshmen at Northwestern. The only time they had ever really been apart was when they had gone their separate ways after college graduation - Brennan to grad school and Angela to art school - but they had kept in touch and had reunited just a few years after. Angela was her closest confidant, other than Booth, and she missed being able to share everything with her.

So, the moment that she was able to suppress whatever heartbreak she felt as far down as it would go, she allowed Angela to 'interrogate' her, knowing her friend was probably worrying herself sick about her.

Whatever it was between Booth and Brennan the rest of the world weren't privileged to know, they were all relieved that the partners were acting like partners again. Wendell, in particular, was glad he didn't have to take his boss' place out in the field, though he was more than happy to be of assistance if Brennan was going as well - he didn't think the agent would rant about Brennan with her sitting right there, and fieldwork like that was good practice and good to have on his resume.

They were, as it was, working on a case at the moment.

Having fielded a call about an unusual cadaver find – a mostly decomposed corpse had been found cut up and stuffed in an air vent of a ballroom at a luxury vineyard in Virginia. The body might've been there for longer but it was only discovered early in the morning when the staff had gone in to make sure everything would be in order for the ceremony later on. The oxidized blood had started to run down from the holes in the vent and the smell had started to become unbearable.

The discovery of the body had been untimely, interrupting and postponing the wedding ceremony of a couple that was supposed to be taking place there at this very second – Booth had called up Brennan and the two, plus Brennan's trusty new sidekick Wendell had embarked on a trip to the vineyard together to get to the crime scene.

When they'd arrived, they'd separated to do their respective jobs: Booth had to interview the bride and groom, their families and friends, the staff of the vineyard and anyone else around that might be able to give him some much needed answers. He had heard that one of the guests - the groom's half-brother Waylon - had been missing since halfway through the bachelor's party the night before so he had to look into that, as well. Brennan and Wendell headed for the ballroom to get to the body, the owner and the manager of the vineyard trailing after them and asking a million questions.

As they reached the ballroom, Brennan turned around, glaring at the annoying pair. "You know," she said, interrupting their next batch of questions. "You should really ask Agent Booth if you have any concerns. He's the FBI agent in charge of this scene."

That seemed to get them away from her and she marched into the room, immediately ensnaring attention as she ordered the techs already there to do as she wanted. No one said a word to contradict her, already too used to her after years of working together, and she immersed herself in the respect and reverence they offered her, letting it soothe her bruised ego slightly over Booth choosing another woman over her.

It took a while before she and Wendell could slowly and carefully extricate the cut up decimated remains from the vent. They carefully laid piece by piece of the body down on the white sheet placed on the ground and were halfway through with the body reconstruction when Booth stepped into the ballroom.

"Well, none of the people here saw or heard anything remotely use-" Booth stopped in his tracks as he caught sight of the chopped up remains and his nose scrunched up. He fought the urge to gag when the smell registered. "Oh…God. That's disgusting."

Wendell nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it's pretty messed up," the younger man didn't seem as unaffected as his boss.

Brennan barely paid any mind to either of them, entirely too focused on the parts of the body in front of her at the moment. "Well, it's definitely murder," Brennan murmured as her gloved fingers probed at a bullet hole she'd found.

Booth, gingerly stepping further away from the remains and leaning his back against a white stone pillar a few feet away, perked up. "Really?"

"Yes," Brennan sighed, straightening up from her crouch next to the upper half of the body. "There are at least two bullet holes from what I can see. We'll have to extricate the rest of the remains from the vent but I'm pretty confident in stating that I've already found the point of COD…Still, we need to do a thorough examination first or it'll simply be conjecture."

Turning towards Wendell, she said, "Let's get back to the vent. We still have his lower half to get to."

Wendell nodded. "Of course, Dr. Brennan," he agreed, stepping towards the ladder that they'd been using earlier.

It took them almost until dinnertime to get every last bit of their John Doe and everything else Brennan thought was necessary to the investigation. The body and the evidence were sent to the Jeffersonian, Wendell riding with the body in the Jeffersonian truck headed back to DC.

"Did you get anything else out of the interrogations you were doing all day?" Brennan asked Booth as she unsnapped her gloves and took out a small bottle of hand sanitizer.

Booth sighed, shaking his head. "Nope," he answered glumly. "Some of these people aren't even co-operative. Like the groom's family. One of their own is missing and it's like they don't even care if he's hurt or if he had anything to do with the body being here at all. If I have to hear one more sob story about how all the money they'd wasted on a non-wedding, or another vapid gossip…"

He sighed again heavily. "Rich people," he grumbled. "Their priorities are all mixed up."

She took the coffee he offered her gratefully. "I'll be sure to tell Hodgins that," she said dryly, gulping down the hot liquid as fast as she could without burning her tongue too bad. She was pretty thirsty after an entire day working on the remains.

He shot her a look and was about to protest when they were interrupted by an approaching FBI tech. "Agent Booth?" the tech said. "Sorry to interrupt but there seems to be some sort of panic going on with the bridal party. They're asking for you."

Booth ran a hand down his face. "God, what now?" he muttered to himself. He'd already been asked to 'do a favour' and make several parking tickets disappear.

Booth led Brennan towards the room where the 'bridal party' had been sitting in all day since the ballroom had turned into a crime scene. None of them could have gone home without talking to Booth so they'd all sat together in the other ballroom. It was smaller than the first, almost half the size, and it was pretty bare the first time Booth went in but now there were chairs and tables set up by the staff and even a buffet table full of food that was probably meant for the reception had the wedding took place earlier.

The number of people in the room had decreased exponentially, nearly a hundred guests reduced to only a handful of guests and everyone from the bride and groom's families. Booth caught sight of the bride in one corner, talking to a gaggle of women wearing identical dresses he could only assume were bridesmaid. She was still wearing her wedding dress and a distraught, tired expression on her face as she spoke to her friends, gesturing around madly.

He felt a stab of pity for her. Although there seemed to be no personal connection between the bride and the victim (he could only assume since the victim doesn't have any ID yet but there didn't seem to be anyone from the wedding that was missing), today was supposed to be the happiest day of her life. Instead, everything had gotten derailed by a rotting corpse.

"Agent Booth! Agent Booth, thank God you're here," the groom's mother said, rushing forward to grasp at the front of his suit. "We can't find Victor."

Booth furrowed his brows, trying to place the name while unclenching her claws from his clothes at the same time. "Victor?" he asked confusedly.

The groom's mother, Adelaide, nodded, her worry turning into exasperation for a moment at his lack of memory. "The best man," she clarified.

Booth nodded in understanding. "Right, of course. Victor Webber," he recalled.

Brennan pursed her lips together in thought. This Victor Webber person was obviously not the victim since Booth hadn't mentioned any possible murder victims that had gone missing from the group when he'd finished talking to them all earlier in the day. "When did you notice his absence?" she questioned.

Adelaide turned to her, blinked a few times as though she hadn't noticed Brennan's presence before then. "Oh," she muttered. "About an hour ago. He said he was going to the bathroom then he didn't return. John – that's my son, the groom – he went looking for Victor because he needed to borrow his car and needed the keys. He wanted to send Aunt Muriel home. She lives right here in Virginia so she didn't get a room here. But John couldn't find him and we've been searching and calling for an hour now…Do you think something happened to him? I mean, there's a crazy person stuffing dead bodies in air vents, running around loose here…God, and with Waylon missing, too. I mean, I didn't think anything of it at first. Waylon wasn't really supportive of this marriage to begin with and no one here could imagine him being involved in something so terrible. What if that lunatic who stuffed that body up there took Waylon and Victor? Oh, God, this is turning out to be such a horrid day…"

She looked positively terrified of the idea that two people she knew and cared for were harmed in any way and Booth rushed to assure her. Again, he spoke to everyone that had been there when they discovered Victor missing, sent up two junior agents to the rooms in the hotel where several of the other wedding guests were staying to check their whereabouts and assured Adelaide that he'd call up the local police to search for Victor once the appropriate amount of time has passed and Victor still hadn't shown up, knowing that the local PD wouldn't look into the disappearance too seriously if he called now considering Victor's past habit of pulling a disappearing act every now and then only to turn up fine a few days later.

It was almost two hours later when almost all of the people in the room had gone up to their rooms when a familiar voice called out Brennan's name in surprise.

"_Temperance!_?"

Brennan looked up from where she had been talking to one of the groomsmen with Booth, shock coming over her countenance as she stared at the woman standing three feet away from her, dressed in a beautiful white wedding dress.

She was at a loss of words, unable to form a reply even when Booth looked at her curiously and asked, "Hey, you know the bride? Why didn't you say anything?"

She wanted to tell him that she hadn't said anything because she hadn't known Kira Fusco was a bride, let alone the bride whose wedding was postponed thanks to a decomposed body. She wanted to tell him that yes, she knew the bride and though they hadn't seen each other in years, the sight of her alone had caused a barrage of emotions to come to the surface, making her want to run as fast as she could in the opposite direction and sprint towards Kira with her arms outstretched all at the same time.

But the words wouldn't form and any sounds she might make died in her throat.

So she remained silent as her eyes took in the only woman she had ever loved so intimately, the fact that she was supposed to have gotten married that day still not quite registering to her thanks to her shock.

_She looks beautiful as a bride_, Brennan thought to herself, even as bitter bile rose at the thought of Kira being somebody's wife.

She tried shaking herself out of it, reminding herself that she shouldn't be jealous, shouldn't resent John-the-groom, because Kira was her past. Kira was her very painful past and that can of worms should never be opened again.

But her head was spinning too fast, her heart was thumping too hard and her stomach was churning too much and she could only swallow hard as her eyes caught Kira's beautiful green ones.

Booth nudged Brennan with his elbow, a confused expression on his face. "Bones," he murmured. "Bones, you in there? You're kinda freaking me out."

Brennan didn't respond to Booth, however, because Kira had taken one small, tentative step forward in her wedding gown and she was calling Brennan's name one more time. "Temperance?" her bottom lip, smeared a deep red color, was clenched between her teeth. "I…It's good to see you again."

Swallowing hard again, Brennan stood up on shaky legs. Kira seemed apprehensive as Brennan came closer.

"Kira," Brennan breathed, blue eyes wide as she gazed at the other woman.

Seeing no anger, no hatred or disgust or any negativity in Brennan's awestruck gaze, Kira allowed herself to feel the love they once shared – a small piece of which she'd always kept with her no matter where life had taken her since they'd last been together – and smiled as she felt the first trace of happiness since John had proposed and she'd felt obligated to say yes despite how stifled she'd felt by him at that point.

"Hi," she murmured, her voice shy as she met Brennan's gaze.

Brennan seemed absolutely astonished as she said, "You're here."

Kira nodded. "I am," she nervously smoothed her hands down the front of her dress.

Brennan's eyes caught the movement and her gaze followed Kira's hands as they moved. A small frown formed on Brennan's lips, disappearing almost immediately. Kira, knowing Brennan better than most people, caught the frown, however. "You're wearing a wedding dress," Brennan stated unnecessarily. "You're the bride. It's your wedding day."

Brennan was in a daze as she said these things, the shock coming back full force. She had known Kira since they were both in their late teens and though they had broken up and separated, going their different ways twice too many times, Brennan still knew Kira – or, at least, she thought she did.

Kira was a free-spirit and very much alike Angela. They had met first, at a college party Brennan had refused to attend in favor of studying for a test coming up the next week. When the two of them had become good friends, Angela had introduced Kira to Brennan. The three of them had gotten along so well that the next year they'd gotten an apartment off campus together.

The Kira Fusco that Brennan knew would've never said 'yes' to marriage. She was far too much of a flight risk, far too much of a free spirit to feel so trapped and tied down.

Angela wasn't the type to get married back when they were in college, either, having been so young then but they'd grown up now. And though the artist shared many similarities with Kira, Angela was a romantic at heart. Her marriage to Hodgins – one of her soul mates and the love of her life, according to her – wasn't a big shock to Brennan. In fact, she'd be lying if she said she _hadn't_ anticipated the very first proposal Hodgins had given Angela or the first time Angela had said 'yes' to him.

Kira, however, was the sort of person to never 'settle down' like that, no matter how much growing up she did.

Then again, Brennan hadn't been the sort of person to 'fall in love' like she had with Booth, either, but she'd still done it.

Brennan sighed, forcing her sadness away as best as she could. She couldn't take handling her grief over Booth and her grief over Kira all at the same time, even if her sadness over Kira was dulled by time.

"It _was_," Kira agreed dryly. "It's not anymore, obviously…" She picked at the intricate beading at her waist. "I haven't even had time to change out of this dress. It's making me a little claustrophobic…"

Kira's nervous laugh made Brennan smile, seeing bits and pieces of the Kira she once knew in this new woman, standing in front of her in a white gown.

"It's been…What? Six years now?" Kira prompted when Brennan didn't say another word.

Brennan cleared her throat, not wanting her voice to crack embarrassingly when she spoke. "Eight, actually," she corrected quietly. "The last time we saw each other was at Angela's New Year's party back in '03…Remember?"

Kira fought a grimace when Brennan could so clearly remember their last time together, and at the mention of Angela, an old friend she knew must hate her after doing what she promised never to do again – abandon Brennan without a word.

"Yes, I remember," Kira murmured softly, her eyes growing soft at the memory. She had already gotten the itch to run and her bags were already packed and hidden away but for one night, as Brennan held her in her arms, and they swayed together with the music, she'd felt the stifling feeling of being trapped fall away and it was just like the earlier stages of their relationship, where everything was perfect and sunny and bright and happy. "It was a great party."

Brennan nodded, unable to say anything to that, a lump forming in her throat as she thought of the next day when she'd gone out to work and came back to an empty apartment and a letter with only two words – 'I'm sorry.'

Kira swallowed a few times to soothe her dry throat before saying, "I don't know if you'll believe me when I say this, Temperance…But it's so good to see you again."

Brennan remained silent though her eyes had that steel, guarded look in her eyes.

Kira sighed. "I just…" she let her arms fall limply to her sides. "I miss you."

Brennan's eyes softened at that.

She and Kira were as different as night and day.

She was all things logical – science was her life and anthropology her religion.

Kira believed in a different deity every month. She 'experimented' with Wicca and Voodoo in college. She was once a Buddhist for three weeks. She liked living on the edge and though she was skeptical of a long lasting real-life romance, she still wanted it to be true. She believed in psychics and the afterlife and fengshui.

But if there was one thing the two of them shared was their difficulty in expressing their emotions and dealing with them outright.

If Kira had admitted that she'd miss her – and Brennan knew it wasn't a lie, too, because lying about their emotions was another thing neither woman was a fan of – then she knew it was the truth and a difficult one for Kira to say.

"I miss you, too," she said honestly, unable to stop her smile when she saw the sparkle in Kira's green eyes at her words.

Kira stepped forward and before she knew it, Kira's arms were wrapped around her. Brennan stiffened for a moment before hugging Kira back, ducking her head to drop her forehead on Kira's bare shoulder and bury her nose in the crook of her neck, taking deep breaths of the flowery scent she'd forever associate with the fiery red-haired woman who'd stolen her breath away at first glance.

The women embraced each other tightly, fiercely, neither of them breaking away for long minutes.

Booth finished questioning the remaining groomsmen before letting them head up to their rooms for the night, assuring them that they'd be informed when their friend was found regardless of his condition.

As the room grew empty except for Booth, Brennan and the bride, Booth turned to look at the embracing pair, a confused frown on his face. He allowed them a minute or two longer, expecting them to break apart on their own, but when they continued to hug, eyes closed and soft smiles on their faces, occasionally murmuring words too quiet for him to hear to one another, he decided to interrupt.

He placed his hands palms-down on his thighs and pushed himself off his chair. Clearing his throat, he waited for them to acknowledge him.

They didn't.

"Um…excuse me," he said quietly.

Again, it was as though they hadn't heard him.

"Uh…Bones? Ms. Fusco?"

Neither one of them reacted.

He was about to try again when a sharp, commanding voice sounded. "Kira!"

Brennan and Kira pulled apart reluctantly and all three of them turned to look in the direction of the voice.

An older woman, probably in her mid-fifties, stood near the entrance of the room. She was wearing a powder blue skirt suit and her dull red hair was pulled into a tight bun. Her face was strict by nature but made even more so by her severe glare.

Booth watched as this woman – Jane Fusco, if he remembered correctly from his earlier interrogations – stalked into the room, a displeased expression on her face. Judging from the stern glare she sent Brennan's way, Booth had a feeling that Jane Fusco wasn't a fan of his partner, no matter what friendship her daughter might've formed with Brennan in the past.

"Kira, it's past eleven already," Jane chided. "You should really be getting some sleep. It's been a very stressful day. You have to be up early tomorrow so we can figure this out."

"Figure what out?" Kira seemed confused.

Jane rolled her eyes. "Your wedding, sweetheart," she said exasperatedly. "We need to figure out when we can actually have the ceremony."

Brennan started, surprised by this. She didn't know why she was. Kira had fallen for someone enough to walk down the aisle for him. The wedding might've been postponed by it certainly wasn't cancelled. She didn't know why she had simply assumed as much.

"The…Wedding," she almost spluttered ungracefully. "Right. The wedding. To…Um, _John_, was it?" she couldn't help the slight mocking in her tone as she said the perfectly normal name of Kira's groom-to-be.

Normal - maybe that was what this new Kira wanted. Normal was something that Brennan had never been. It was something that had drew Kira to her in the first place. Maybe normal was the new exciting thing for her.

Jane turned glaring eyes to Brennan. "Yes, that's right, to _John_," she emphasized on John's name. "Just because today had gone badly doesn't mean that the wedding's not going to happen some other time – preferably without any interruptions."

They fell into an awkward silence before Kira cleared her throat and spoke up. "Mom? You remember Temperance Brennan, don't you? We-we went to college together…"

_Oh, that's now they met_, Booth thought as he watched this painfully awkward, tensed scene.

Jane waved her hand dismissively. "Yes, yes, I remember her well," she said dryly. "How _charming_ to see you again."

It was clear from her tone that she thought the exact opposite.

Brennan, being herself, took it too literally. Frowning at Jane, she asked, "It is? But you hated me…"

Booth diverted his gaze from the scene, mentally shaking his head at his awkward partner. A wide smile bloomed across Kira's face as she lifted a hand to her lips to stifle her laughter.

Jane merely glared at Brennan. "Say goodnight now, Kira," she ordered briskly. "There's a lot of damage control we have to do tomorrow."

Kira frowned at her mother. "I'm not all that tired, mother," she countered. "I'll head up in a while. Temperance and I have a lot of catching up to do."

Kira turned her head to look at Brennan, the shy look back on her face. "That is…If you want to?" she asked uncertainly.

Brennan nodded immediately. "Sure, that'd be great," she agreed instantly.

Jane looked unhappy by this. "Kira…" she said warningly.

Kira looked at her mother, irritated. "Mom, I promise not to be late tomorrow," she assured Jane. "I'm not going anywhere, okay? We're just going to sit and talk."

Jane still wasn't pleased by this and after a few rounds arguing with her daughter, she left with a stern warning not to be late the next day.

Once Jane was gone, Kira turned to Brennan, all traces of frustration gone as she smiled. "Are you heading back to DC?" she asked, looking at Booth for the first time since she and Brennan had seen each other for the first time in eight years.

Brennan shook her head. "No, we're staying until the case is solved," Brennan told her.

Booth looked over at her in surprise. Before Sweets' book, before their feelings came out in the open, before Afghanistan and Hannah, Brennan staying with him out of town while he investigated a case wasn't such a shock. She did it all the time and would delegate the rest of the team back at the lab to examine the body and give them more than what she'd already known from initial examination.

Recently, however, just the fact that she agreed to go out into the field with him in the first place was a surprise. They hadn't had an overnight out-of-town case in a _long_ time.

"You're staying too?" he blurted out before he could stop himself.

Brennan gave him a confused look. "Is that a problem?"

"Uh…N-no," he stammered.

Brennan nodded, satisfied.

Kira either didn't see the look on Booth's face or didn't bother about it. "Where are you staying then?"

Booth shrugged, answering for the both of them, "Probably a hotel close by…"

"Why don't you stay here?"

"Government pay isn't that great," Booth said. "I'd have to dish out three month's salary to afford a night here.

Brennan and Kira both looked at him, unamused. "I was actually talking to _Temperance_, Agent Booth," Kira clarified, calling him by the name he'd introduced himself by earlier when they'd spoken about the decomposed corpse. Turning to Brennan, Kira smiled. "You could stay with me if you'd like," she offered. "John's got a million relatives and he invited them all here for this," she rolled her eyes.

Despite the stab of envy she felt at the mention of John, Brennan quirked an eyebrow. "Won't John be upset if I stay with you? He'd want privacy with you…After all, this was supposed to be your wedding night. And it would be a little awkward, don't you think-"

Kira laughed, interrupting Brennan. "We have separate rooms," she assured Brennan. "Some weird tradition I've never cared for."

Without so much as a backwards glance at Booth, Brennan had twined her fingers together with Kira and followed her out the door.

Booth watched them, eyebrows furrowed. _Was she ever that touchy feely with Angela?_ He wondered silently.

* * *

The case was solved within five days, victim ID'd, the culprit caught - it wasn't Waylon who did the actual killing like Booth had suspected, but Waylon who had helped an accomplice hide the body and panicked, running, afterwards - and Victor Webber found – alive, drunken and soliciting with a hooker, his disappearance not revolving around the case at all.

Booth and Brennan were slated to leave Virginia the same day. Brennan was reluctant to leave but Jane Fusco had already re-set the wedding date. Kira was getting married to John Neven in two weeks' time.

"I can't believe how little time we've had these past few days," Kira said to Brennan as she walked Brennan down the steps from the inn and towards Booth's FBI-issued truck parked out front. "I mean, I know you had to work and all…I just wished we had more time."

"You could always visit," Brennan was quick to offer. "DC is just a few hours' drive from here…"

Kira looked tempted by that. "I wish I could," she said sincerely, linking arms with Brennan. "But I know my mom. She was bridezilla the last time around and it's just going to be twice as awful now. I'm not going to have a spare second to myself."

Brennan tried not to let her disappointment show as they came to a stop next to the truck. She could see Booth's arm hanging out the window of the driver's side. "I guess I have to go…" she sighed, wishing she didn't have to say goodbye just yet.

Kira bit her lip as she gazed at Brennan for a long moment. Launching herself at Brennan, she hugged her tightly. "I wish you could stay," she murmured into Brennan's hair.

Brennan smiled. "Me, too," she whispered. She pulled back from their hug with a heavy heart, her arms feeling like lead as she forced them to fall from Kira's slim waist.

"For what it's worth, Kira…" She sighed, her eyes flicking away from Kira's vivid eyes for a moment as she fought to push down her emotions. "You made a beautiful bride."

Kira smiled slightly. "Thank you," she murmured quietly.

Brennan nodded once before stepping further away from Kira. She was blinking back tears as she slipped into the passenger's seat.

Booth did a double take at her. "You okay?" he asked quietly, seeing the moisture in her eyes.

She threw her duffel in the backseat and turned away from Booth to look out the window. "I'm fine," she said curtly.

She refused to be comforted by her recent lost love as she mourned another missed opportunity with her past lost love. It was just too complicated, too painful. She couldn't deal with that.

"Let's just go."

Booth stared at her for a few long moments before nodding his head. "Okay," he said quietly.

He didn't know what it was that had upset her so much – though he knew it had something to do with her old friend Kira Fusco – and he didn't know why she seemed so tearful but he was sorry she felt sad. He reached out to place a hand on her knee, squeezing reassuringly. When he felt her tense up, he quickly removed his hand, moving to place it on the steering wheel instead.

"Let's go," he agreed, turning on the engine and slowly backing out of the vineyard.

She didn't speak a word to him the entire drive back and she didn't argue with him when he put on the Smashing Pumpkins as road music – though she could never remember the name of the band, she hated their music and would usually complain loudly and incessantly every time he played it. She gave him a very soft 'thank you' when he dropped her off at her apartment.

He shook his head, staying parked while he watched as she made her way into the elevator and waited until he saw the light in the window he knew belonged to her apartment lit up. He couldn't catch up to her bizarre mood swings and he couldn't understand the look in her eyes ever since they'd arrived at the vineyard and saw Kira.

That truly made him sad because it hadn't been too long ago when he knew each and every one of her looks and anticipated her mood changes before it happened. It wasn't too long ago when he would've done everything in his power just to see the sad look in her eyes disappear and a smile flicker on her lips.

Taking one last look at the light in her apartment, Booth turned away and stepped on the gas, making his way back to Hannah waiting for him at home.

* * *

He didn't see her again until three days later when he received a call about another body – this one discovered in downtown DC. She didn't look sad when they saw each other again, just tired and guarded. He didn't ask and she didn't offer.

He drove her to the crime scene in silence – not comfortable, like they might've in the past, but awkward and tensed and stifling. She threw herself into her work perhaps a little too enthusiastically when they arrived at the scene but he didn't allow himself to care more than a co-worker would another, knowing that if the door was opened even the tiniest crack, he would be too vulnerable to falling in love with her all over again and that just wasn't an option.

She worked on giving an initial assessment of the victim before putting the lab techs at work to carefully transport the body as well as any evidence she might need back to the lab.

Bending over a sterile table on the platform, Brennan continued working on their latest body. "There's a knife wound here," Brennan murmured. "It could be the COD but there's too much flesh here for me to work properly."

She sounded frustrated as she straightened up. "Wendell," she turned towards her assistant. "Is Dr. Saroyan available now? I need to know if she wants anything from the remaining flesh."

Wendell nodded. "I'll page her," she offered.

Brennan sighed. "Please do," she instructed. "I'd also like it if you could do an evaluation of your own and double check with mine. And once Dr. Saroyan is done with the flesh, please remove them and have the bones cleaned."

Wendell nodded his head immediately. "Sure, Dr. Brennan," he said with a smile, taking hold of her clipboard she extended to him.

Booth quickly followed after Brennan as she swiped her card and descended the stairs. "So when do you think you will get an ID?" he asked her as he kept long strides to keep up with her quick steps.

Brennan shot him a sideways look. "Cam will have to get whatever she needs from the flesh, then after Wendell cleans the bones and we examine it, Angela can have the skull," she said in one breath. "You know all of this, Booth. Or did you forget after being away from all things anthropology for a year?"

He fought a blush trying to color his cheeks red. He hadn't forgotten - he'd worked with Brennan and her team of squints for five years before he'd left, known her for over six…No one could forget something they thought about everyday for six years. He had simply been anxious to make conversation with her that he'd unthinkingly blurted out probably the stupidest question he could've asked.

"No, I didn't forget, Bones," he scoffed, scowling at her in an attempt to defend himself and not look like a complete idiot next to her. "I was just asking. It's a valid question, you know? You just told me it was murder - I'm gonna wanna know who the victim was as soon as possible."

She was glaring at him now. "Booth, you can't rush science, okay?" she snapped. "How many times do I have to-"

Her words were cut off as someone placed their hand on her arm, gripping it tightly, before spinning her around. All Brennan saw was a flash of red before soft lips descended on her mouth, closing on her lips in a passionate kiss of two lovers reunited after a long time apart. All of her locked muscles, having prepared to defend herself, slowly relaxed because even after all that time apart, she still knew exactly whose lips were fused to hers.

Booth, who had been right beside Brennan, felt his jaw drop, his face scrunching up in disbelief.

He recognized the fiery red-haired beautiful woman instantly – after all, it hadn't even been a week since they'd left Virginia. What he didn't understand was why she was kissing Brennan and why, for the love of all things Holy, Brennan was relaxing into the embrace and kissing her back just as passionately.

Up on the platform, Wendell had stopped working as well, confused as to why the loud voices of his boss and her partner had suddenly ceased. Daisy and Cam, who had just joined Wendell to analyse the body, were also gaping at the scene right below them.

Booth slowly backed away from the embracing couple, noting that Brennan didn't even seem to realize where she was, let alone that he was right there next to her.

_Just like back at the vineyard_, he realized. _They'd been caught up in their own world back then, too. This kiss…It clearly wasn't a first time thing. Does this mean they weren't just old friends like I'd thought? Does this mean they're old lovers?_

Booth frowned as he considered that. If she had been lovers with Kira, that had to have meant this happened before he and Brennan had ever met. Brennan had recalled the last time they'd seen each other was eight years ago. That was before he had met his partner.

If this was so, then why had she lied to him? He could still clearly remember her denying that she'd ever been with a woman on that freaky art case when Angela's old flame Roxie had been unintentionally, unexpectedly, dragged into the picture.

Once Booth was a few feet away from Brennan and Kira – still kissing each other madly, might he add – he quickly swiped his card to access the platform and joined the others. He would've just left but he was far too freaked out and he wasn't sure just what was happening.

"Whoa," Daisy said, breaking the silence amongst the group. Her tone was hushed, and Cam imitated it when she spoke next.

"Got that right," Cam was equally stunned, her eyes unable to look away from the scene. It wasn't that she was unfamiliar or uncomfortable with lesbian couples - she was all for the freedom to love whoever you love, regardless of gender. And it wasn't like anyone here at the lab was unfamiliar with it, as well, considering Angela's and Roxie's brief relationship a few years back.

However, the fact that it was Dr. Brennan - awkward, uptight Dr. Brennan whom not only had Cam never seen with another woman like that, but had been having a steady stream of suitors, all of whom men - made all of them gawk.

Booth turned away first, feeling uncomfortable watching such an intimate moment. Cam followed suit, turning wide eyes to Booth and Daisy. "Who the _hell_ is that!" she whispered fiercely.

Booth cleared his throat several times to get his voice working. "That's Kira Fusco," he told her.

Her eyes went up at the familiar name. "Fusco? As in the wedding-that-got-interrupted Fusco?" she questioned disbelievingly.

He nodded mutely.

She gaped at him for a moment, her head swivelling from him to the still-embracing couple down below and back to him. Reaching out, she smacked him on the arm – hard.

"Ow! Cam, what the hell?" he complained, glaring at her. Cam did _not_ hit like a girl. At all.

She ignored his complaint. "Something as big as finding out about Dr. Brennan's old female flame and you didn't even bother to tell me about it?" she asked him, a little offended by it.

He rolled his eyes. "I didn't know they were old flames, Camille," he said, irritated. "I thought they were just old friends."

"Yeah, I make out with all my girlfriends, too," Cam said dryly.

He shot her a look. "They weren't making out in Virginia, okay?" he said, shaking his head. "They were just…Friendly."

Brennan was completely oblivious to her friends' shock, still embracing the woman in her arms. It was Kira who pulled away first from their kiss, though she kept her hands in Brennan's silken hair. Brennan kept her eyes closed as though worried that if she opened them, she would discover that the woman in her arms was merely a figment of her imagination. Her hands tightened where they were pressed on Kira's hips.

She licked her lips, clearing her dry throat, and spoke, her eyes still squeezed tightly shut. "Please tell me that this is real," she said quietly, not even ashamed at the pleading edge her voice had taken because if she was right and this wasn't a dream, then something she hadn't dared to dream would happen had occurred and she now suddenly had something tangible to hold on to. "And not an incredibly vivid daydream I'm having."

In a voice Brennan knew meant that Kira was smiling a wide, goofy smile, she teased, "Why don't you open your eyes and see for yourself?"

Pushing herself to be braver than she felt, Brennan allowed her eyes to flutter open. Seeing the beautiful green eyes before her, Brennan felt a smile flicker across her lips, growing wide as she took in the porcelain skin and the beautiful, silky red hair she had always been envious of.

"Kira," she practically breathed her name. "You're really here."

Kira grinned at her widely. "I'm really here," she assured in a soft voice.

Brennan lifted one hand from Kira's hips, safe now in her assessment that this woman was really there with her, and brushed her fingertips gently over Kira's cheek. "What…? Why…?" she was unable to properly articulate herself, too in shock over Kira's reemergence into her life. Just three days ago, she'd thought she wouldn't be seeing Kira again for a long time, if at all, let alone have the chance to kiss her again after eight years.

Kira seemed to understand her question despite her stammers, and shrugged. She stepped closer to Brennan, her arms going around Brennan's slim waist in a half embrace. "I just…I've missed you, Kitten," a shy smile coming across both their lips at the nickname that Kira had christened her with so many years ago.

"Everything in my life was just so…Euggh, you know?" Even though Brennan didn't, she nodded anyway. "I just felt so trapped with John and it felt like I had to marry him, not because I wanted to but because my parents wanted me to. A marriage shouldn't be a 'have to' thing, it has to be a 'need to'. It took me two days after you left to break it off with John. My parents were unhappy with it – they totally freaked out and everything grew so crazy that I just had to get away…"

Kira took in a deep breath and exhaled loudly. "I packed up a bag and I went to the airport, bought a ticket to the Bahamas to have some fun before I go back home and deal with the craziness but when I was waiting for my flight, the TV was on and there you were," she continued her explanation, her words coming out all in one breath.

"TV?" Brennan blinked in confusion, her mind still not catching up as quickly as she would have liked. It wasn't her fault, really – Kira's unexpected presence and their mind blowing kiss had completely boggled her mind.

Kira nodded, bright green eyes sparkling excitedly. "Yeah, you were doing an interview on Oprah," she gushed. "It was a repeat episode but I've never seen it before…You never told me you went on her show. That was so incredible, Temperance! I can't believe you actually got to meet her."

A smile tugged at Brennan's lips as basic motor function started to flood back. She remembered, with clarity rivaling memories of this morning, that Kira absolutely idolized Oprah. "Oh, yeah," she nodded. "It was…It was great."

Not really in the mood to talk about a show on TV, she blinked at Kira. "So you…You saw me on TV and decided to…?"

Kira sighed. "It had to have been a sign," Kira said, not making sense to her at all. "The dead body on my wedding day, the best man going missing –"

"We found him two days later," Brennan interjected dazedly. "He was unharmed. He was just drunk and forgot to call anyone or show up at the inn again."

Kira ignored that, giving Brennan a soft smile. "You showing up on my wedding day," she continued with her list, her voice growing as soft as her expression.

"That was…A coincidence, almost. I-I'm the closest forensic anthropologist to Virginia," Brennan reminded her, almost stuttering.

Kira shook her head. "It was a sign," she insisted. "My heart just wasn't with John anymore. I felt so suffocated. When I saw you…It was like fate. That Oprah came on and I knew. I just knew I had to come here. I just had to drive up to DC to come see you."

Brennan didn't believe in fate. She didn't believe in seeing signs. She didn't believe in an organ telling you that you didn't belong in a certain city any longer.

But in the past year, she'd found out that she'd been in love without even realizing it, had gotten attached to a child that she had desperately wanted to call her own, had come home and gotten her heart broken, and was now still walking on what felt like shattered glass all day every day.

It felt, most days, like some of her most core beliefs - at least, her personal core beliefs - had been shaken so hard that they'd turned into dust. So who was to say that it wasn't fate and signs and hearts telling Kira that she should be in DC?

All Brennan really cared about was the fact that Kira was in DC, she was in Brennan's embrace and they'd just spent a few good minutes kissing as though there wasn't years standing in between them.

So she smiled, hugged Kira as close as their bodies would allow, and murmured into her ear, "I'm so glad you did. So very glad."

Kira let out one of those happy, feminine laughter of hers that Brennan had always adored, and pulled back to look into her eyes. "Good to know, Kitten," she whispered.

Brennan beamed, leaning in to accept Kira's kiss. Kira's hands slid up Brennan's back, fingers clutching at her shoulder blades, while Brennan cupped Kira's face in her hands, fingers tangling in her hair as they kissed enthusiastically, almost violently.

Angela, who had just spent the better part of twenty minutes locked in her office with her husband, was now accompanying him towards the platform. He had a file in his hands - results from the bugs he'd collected from the victim's clothes - and she had a sketchpad in hers, ready to check on the skull to see if she could start working on it already. They both had very happy, very satisfied smiles on their faces.

Angela had to admit that while everything wasn't going so great for her best friend, things were going very well for herself. _Now if only I could just fix Brennan_, she mused to herself.

When the two of them came into viewing distance of the platform, they were surprised to see one very unexpected sight.

"Is that who I think it is?" Hodgins muttered disbelievingly, shooting a look at his wife, knowing that she wouldn't be happy at all. True enough, the blissful grin on her face dropped and was replaced by an angry frown. "Uh-oh," he muttered under his breath, watching as Angela stormed off ahead of him, confronting the embracing couple heads on.

Angela, not at all concerned about disturbing the couple's privacy, walked straight up to them. Clearing her throat, she interrupted their reunion. "Bren," she said, her voice pleasant even if she was seething inside. "What's going on here?"

Brennan and Kira pulled away from each other, turning to look at Angela. While Brennan wore a glowingly happy smile, Kira grimaced at the sight of Angela. She already knew Angela wouldn't be quick to welcome her back into their lives.

The first time she had run from Brennan, Angela had tracked her down without telling Brennan. Kira believed that, to this day, Brennan still had no idea of their heated encounter that had ended with Angela telling her that she was throwing away the love of the best woman she'd ever meet and to never return if she intended to really leave.

When she had showed up at the Jeffersonian, knowing that Brennan had just started work there simply because she had followed Brennan's career, reading papers she'd published and finding information on her online which grew in abundance over the years, Angela had been upset. Even when Brennan had readily forgiven her for walking out, Angela hadn't trusted her.

While a part of her wanted to mend bridges with Angela for Brennan – knowing just how much the two of them meant to each other – another part of her wanted to mend bridges for herself.

She didn't let herself think about the past much, whether it was her past with Brennan and Angela, or with anyone. She didn't want to dwell on the past when the future was right there in front of her. But standing there in front of Angela…Kira found herself missing the easy friendship they'd had back in college. It had felt like they were sisters, which was a great thing for her since she had been an only child growing up.

"Angela," she offered the other woman a small smile. "Hi. It's good to see you again."

Angela quirked an eyebrow. "Is it?" she asked coolly.

Brennan frowned unhappily at Angela. "Angela," she said warningly.

Angela ignored that. "I didn't even know you were back in town, Kira," she said, folding her arms across her chest.

"Oh, it was an impulse decision," Kira said as her arms fell away from Brennan's waist. "I…It's a long story."

Angela stared at her. "So you woke up one day and decided you wanted to come to DC out of nowhere?" she prodded, wanting to know the real reason why Kira had suddenly dropped back into their lives after almost a decade of absence. "You decided to fly here just like that? Come on, Kira. New York isn't close by. There has to be another reason."

Kira frowned at her. "New York?" she questioned. "No, I, uh, I came from Virginia," she explained. "After I saw Temperance again, it just felt right, you know?"

"Virginia?" Angela was taken aback. Her eyes flickered to Brennan who was doing her best to avoid Angela's gaze.

"Then I cancelled the wedding and everything got really messed up and…"

At the word 'wedding', Angela suddenly understood. "You were at the wedding where the body was found," she stated more than asked.

Kira furrowed her brows at Angela. "Of course I was," she said, confused as to why Angela was acting like this was news to me. "It was my wedding."

Angela's eyes dropped to Kira's left hand, looking at her ringless finger. "I guess you never actually got married," she commented.

Kira shook her head, turning to give Brennan a wide smile. "No…I had a feeling and three days later, here I am," she beamed, chuckling together with Brennan.

Angela rolled her eyes at the lovesick duo. "Uh-huh," she said dryly. She watched Brennan twine her fingers with Kira's and lift their hands to press a kiss to the back of Kira's hand. "Uh, Brennan? Can I talk to you for a second?"

Brennan was a little too wrapped up in Kira to take note of her words so Angela reached out and grabbed her by the arm. "Bren?" she prompted, leading her away from Kira.

Stopping a few feet away from the red head, enough distance between them that Kira wouldn't be able to hear anything that was being said, Angela rounded on Brennan.

Angela took a moment to study her friend, using her intuitiveness with people in general and the knowledge she had on Brennan's hard-to-decipher emotions after over fifteen years of friendship. She could see clearly, plain as day, what most people would miss if they looked at Brennan at this moment.

Even though she had a smile on her face and her cheeks were pink and glowing with happiness at seeing Kira again – and, Angela assumed, rekindling their old flame – her eyes were still sad and pained and hurt.

She was in no position to be making decisions like getting back together with the one ex she had loved when she was still reeling from being rejected by the love of her life.

Angela shot Kira a look, noticing that Daisy had approached her and the two were now making polite conversation, the younger woman much more enthusiastic than Kira.

Turning back to Brennan, Angela lowered her voice even though there was no chance Kira would hear her from the distance even if she'd spoken normally. "What are you doing, Bren? Don't you remember who she is?" she hissed at her friend.

Brennan gave her a look. "Of course I do," she huffed. "I don't make it a point to kiss every woman I see, you know?"

Ignoring the sarcastic comment, Angela ploughed ahead. "Then you remembered what happened the last time you saw each other?"

"That was a long time ago, Angela," Brennan protested, glaring at the dark haired artist.

She knew that Angela and Kira had fallen out during college and she was pretty sure it had something to do with Kira's sudden decision to leave midway through senior year but it had been such a long time ago.

Angela had kept a grudge long enough.

She could understand Angela's reluctance to accept Kira's presence when they'd seen each other again eight years ago – it had only been a few short years since college then – but now it had been over a decade since college was over.

Brennan wished Angela would forgive and forget already because the last time Kira had been around, it had been taxing to Brennan trying to be the buffer between them. She had no desire to repeat that experience.

"It's ancient history," Brennan insisted. "It's not even worth mentioning, Angela. I've forgotten all about it."

Angela glared at her, placing her hands on her hips. "If it's such ancient history, why didn't you tell me you saw her in Virginia?" Angela demanded, raising an eyebrow. "We talked more than once daily every day you were there and it's been three days since you've been back. You've had plenty of time to tell me."

Brennan blew out a breath of frustration. "Because I knew this was how you'd react!" she whisper-yelled. "Seeing Kira again was a happy thing for me, Angela, and I knew you were only going to remind me of our past mistakes and you're going to tell me how I should forget about her and make me feel bad about it."

"Look, if I were to make you feel bad about it, it's because I care about you, Brennan, and I don't want you to get hurt by her again," Angela explained. Brennan stayed silent, her arms folded across her chest as she stared at Angela.

Sighing, Angela shook her head, rubbing her temple with her fingertips. "Brennan, why the hell are you so quick to forgive her?" she asked, sounding almost as tired as she felt.

"There's nothing to forgive, Angela," Brennan scoffed. "If you stopped being angry for just a second, you'd see that."

They were interrupted by Kira coming up to them. "Uh, Temperance?" Kira looked between Brennan and Angela, giving them both apologetic looks for interrupting. "I just…I haven't eaten anything since last night and I was thinking maybe we could go out for an early lunch," she smiled at Temperance. "It'd give us a chance to catch up since we didn't really get to do that in Virginia."

Brennan nodded immediately, "Yes. Absolutely."

Hodgins, who had joined the others up on the platform, quickly whispered, "Quick - someone give an excuse so she can't go!"

He hadn't been there to witness Brennan and Angela meeting Kira for the very first time when they were back in college, but he was already working at the Jeffersonian and a part of Brennan's team the second time Kira had come into Brennan's life, and had seen just how messed up Brennan had been after Kira had left. He hadn't been told all the details but he'd seen parts of their relationship fold out and he'd been warned by Angela not to mention anything involving Kira once the red-haired woman was gone.

From everything he'd gleamed years ago, and from the look of pure ire on Angela's face, he knew Kira wasn't going to be a happy ending for Brennan. Or even a healthy beginning.

"What? Why?" Cam whispered back.

"Just do it!" he hissed.

Booth was the one who stepped up. "Bones!" he called out, stepping closer to the railing so he could speak without having to yell loudly. "We were going to go interview our suspect, remember?" he reminded her, knowing that she wouldn't want to pass up the chance to interrogate suspects now that she was back on the job as his partner.

Unfortunately for him, he had no idea how Brennan was when Kira was around. "What?" Brennan said, apparently not having heard him at all as she gazed at Kira. "Uh…I'm just…" she murmured distractedly.

"Bones!"

Jumping, Brennan tore her eyes away from Kira to give Booth an apologetic look. "Can we…Rain check?" she asked. Without waiting for a reply, she took Kira's hand in hers. "Come on, Kira…I'll just grab my coat."

"Give me a tour of your work place first," Kira urged. "This place sure has changed since the last time I saw it."

"Bye, Ange!" Brennan threw over her shoulder absentmindedly as she led Kira towards the direction of her office. "I have a new office now."

"Really?"

"Mm-hmm. It's bigger, nicer…I think you'll like it," their voices started to fade, growing softer as they walked further and further away from the platform.

Angela stared in the direction they'd left in, watching as they disappeared into Brennan's office, the door closing behind them, effectively cutting off her view since the blinds on her glass windows and door were already drawn. Shaking her head at the absurdness of the situation, she walked towards the platform, not really feeling like herself.

_I can't believe Kira's here_, she sighed to herself. _After all this time…She's here again. Why now?_

Thinking of Brennan's emotional vulnerability at the moment, even if Brennan kept insisting she was more than fine, Angela couldn't help but think that Kira had picked the worst possible time to show up again.

She threw a dirty look at the closed door of Brennan's office, feeling an irrepressible surge of anger at the redhead. It angered her that every time Kira Fusco rolled into town, she left behind a trail of destruction that Angela was the one who had to clean up and put back together. She could already see the storm brewing, even if Brennan couldn't, and just like all the other times before, she knew it wouldn't be pretty.

Angela snorted in bitter anger when she remembered Brennan's earlier words. _'Nothing to forgive', my ass_, she thought spitefully, remembering clearly just how well Brennan had taken to Kira leaving her the last time around. It had taken her years to finally be somewhat normal again, and that, too, wouldn't have happened if it weren't for the extra push Brennan had received being around special agent charming.

Now that Booth was taken and clearly the cause of Brennan's heartbreak slash mental disorder - because there was no way any sane person would fall for Kira's charms a third time after everything that had gone down - Angela wasn't sure how long Brennan would take to come back up after Kira would inevitably push her down.

"Hey, babe," Hodgins greeted her fragilely. When his wife barely gave a grunt of acknowledgement, he tentatively asked, "Are they…?"

This seemed to suddenly spark her into action. Fire blazing in her eyes, she nodded, "Yes, they are!" she growled. She turned to Booth, who suddenly felt very glad that whatever issues Angela had with that Kira woman, she didn't feel the same towards him. "Look, Booth, I know you and Bren aren't really…Talking much right now, especially about personal stuff-"

He cut her off, ignoring the involuntary wince that had come with the reminder. "Wait, how do you know about that?" he demanded.

Angela gave him a scoff. "Booth, please," she said exasperatedly. "I'm her best friend."

"Yeah, but-"

"I need you to look out for her," Angela blurted out, interrupting him.

Booth, forgetting whatever protests he might've wanted to say could only blink at her in surprise. "Excuse me?"

She repeated her request, adding, "That woman is nothing more than a _she-devil_ and for whatever reason, Brennan is the only one who can't see it."

Cam's eyebrows shot to her hairline as she heard the vehemence in Angela's voice. She had never heard the fun-loving, free-spirited artist talk about anyone with that much hate. Hannah had been a close second before they'd all met her but even Angela couldn't deny that the blonde was actually a nice person. Well, she couldn't deny it _much_, anyway. "Wow, you don't seem too fond of her, whoever she is," Cam noted.

Hodgins snorted softly. "Understatement of the century," he muttered.

Booth shook his head. "Look, Ange, I know you've probably got issues with…I don't know, whatshername, and I know Bones was acting kinda weird earlier…" 'Kinda weird' didn't even cover it. He still felt sort of lightheaded. He didn't know why he was so stunned over this.

When his aunt had come out, he had been beyond shocked but that was only because that had been the first time anyone he knew had done so. _Angela_ hadn't really been a surprise. She was so free spirited that it would've probably shocked him more to learn that she _hadn't_ experimented at least once in her life.

But _Brennan_? His tight-laced partner? Sure, she wasn't at all shy when it came to sex but this was too outrageous for her somehow. Besides, if she had, at one point in her life, been in a relationship with a woman, why hadn't she come clean with him when he'd asked? He knew she probably already knew the story about his aunt - Brennan and Angela tended to share everything, in explicit detail. He'd always thought Hodgins was a patient man for putting up with their need to reveal intimate details of their lives to each other. Well, either he was patient or slightly pervy for liking it.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he added, "And even though I don't really know her, I've met her at the wedding and talked to her a few times…I'm a pretty good judge of character, Angela, and she seems really nice."

"Okay," Angela relented slightly. "She's not exactly the 'she-devil', but she's still bad…"

Booth rolled his eyes. "Uh-huh," he said disbelievingly.

Angela, who didn't like the fact that Booth was dismissing this so lightly, turned her glare on him now. "Listen to me, Booth," her voice was urgent and demanded his attention immediately. "I may not like Kira, but there's a reason for that…Kira's bad news, okay? The last time…" she shook her head as memories of Kira's last entrance into their lives - and her subsequent, inevitable, departure - flashed through her mind. "Brennan got her heart hurt really badly when Kira left. It took her a long time - years even - to really forget about Kira and move on."

Daisy, whom Angela hadn't noticed was standing there, piped up, "Was Dr. Brennan in love with this Kira woman?"

Angela's head snapped around in her direction. "Daisy, when did you get here?" she asked, the anger in her voice fading just a tiny bit as she stared at the intern.

Daisy blushed slightly. "Oh, I've been here the whole time," she announced perkily. "May I just say that the woman Dr. Brennan was kissing was very beautiful?"

Angela's eyes tightened, and that seemed to scare Daisy enough for her to scramble back towards the body, attention averted. Angela turned away from her and continued to speak to her friends, answering Daisy's question as though one of them had asked instead - it wasn't that she disliked Daisy, but she didn't actually want to tell _her_ about Brennan. "Brennan loved her," she admitted. "She wasn't in love, I don't think, but this was a pretty close to being in love kind of love. And Kira…She's just…She never cared."

"Bones!" Booth said, shocked, before shaking his head. "Oh, come on…Bones doesn't do that. She doesn't love like that." His words were spoken unthinkingly, and was easily misunderstood.

"Tread very lightly, Seeley," Cam warned, seeing the look on Angela's face. "Think about what you're saying."

Going over what he'd just said in his mind, and realizing his mistake, he started and was quick to try and rectify, "No! No, _God no_…That's not what I meant. I just…" He felt like cowering a little under the glare both Hodgins and Angela were giving him, and Cam wasn't helping at all, just standing there with a blank expression on a face and a cocked eyebrow as though waiting for him to suddenly pull a Shakespearean monologue out his ass. "I just meant…You know, she couldn't have gotten her heart broken with this Kira person. Bones, uh, you know, she doesn't really invest in her past relationships."

And it wasn't like he wouldn't know, either. He'd seen the way she was with past boyfriends (_key word here - _boy_friend_, his mind couldn't help but throw in, still staggered by this new tidbit of information about his partner he'd never known about). They had all been nothing more than casual relationships, even Hacker, that son of a bitch. Sully had been the closest thing Brennan had ever had to a real relationship but the moment the guy had shown any sort of real emotion towards her, Brennan would balk. It was crazy to think that she'd ever been invested in any relationship.

Angela nodded. She could see where he'd gotten that conclusion. Her best friend was definitely not the advocate for serious, long term relationships. But he hadn't known about Kira, either. "She did," she revealed. "She invested in Kira and she got burnt badly enough to convince her that she didn't want to open up enough to feel that kind of hurt again."

Unable to help herself - despite the promise she'd made to Brennan after she'd finally opened up to tell her everything that had happened between herself and Booth, starting all the way from before they went their separate ways for a whole year to their 'reconciliation' after the Greek expedition incident - Angela gave Booth a meaningful look and made a jab, "You know, what with all the people just upping and leaving her the way they do?"

Booth wasn't quite sure what she meant, because if she was referring to him going to Afghanistan, then she had no right because Brennan had gone from DC, too, going all the way to Indonesia. And if she was making some sort of dig about Hannah…Then she had no right to do that, too. Nevertheless, her dark eyes bored into his skull and made him uncomfortable enough to shuffle his feet, averting his gaze awkwardly from her.

Cam, deciding to save her friend, interjected, "It couldn't have been that bad, Angela…She seems happy enough to see Kira." She herself had been on the bad end of plenty of heartbreak and she knew that she wouldn't have acted the way Brennan had with Kira if she'd bumped into someone who'd caused her heart to hurt as much as Angela said Brennan's had.

Angela shook her head. "Kira was the one that got away," she said, putting it into words that would hopefully break through to them. "She's the one you know, deep down, is bad for you but you just can't help it. Something just keeps pulling you back in every time."

A sympathetic look on his face, Booth nodded in understanding, "Oh…I know how that is." Lord knows he himself had suffered through that. One woman in particular stood out in mind; the one woman he'd waited half a decade for and had never gotten anywhere with. The very same one he'd had a very confusing dream about last night while he was wrapped around a different woman he was in love with.

Seeing that he was probably understanding now, Angela narrowed her eyes at him and stepped just a tiny bit closer to him. "Just promise me," her voice was low and urgent. "Promise me you'll look out for her, G-man. Seeing her like that…" Angela shuddered. It was an experience she'd had the unfortunate luck to live through twice, and she just wasn't sure she could go through it a third time. "It was scary. Really scary. She was like…Just…"

Words seemed to have failed her after her long rant before this, so Hodgins jumped in. "Yeah, I was there the second time," he added. "It wasn't pretty…Might've even been worse than when she was working through the heartbreak _you_ left her with," he mused.

After all, even though he figured Booth meant a whole lot more to Brennan than Kira ever did - anyone who had spent five minutes with the partners, especially before they'd gone to separate continents and shaken up their foundation, would be able to tell how much they meant to each other; and, really, how was anyone supposed to top a bond that was important enough that you'd take a bullet for the other person without even thinking? - all he had ever seen Brennan do to work through her heartbreak for him was write a new book and put in more hours at the Jeffersonian.

Even when she'd spent a 'girls night in' with Angela at their house, there were no tears, no drunken rambles, just the two of them snuggled up in the den in the Hodgins' estate in their pajamas, watching romantic chick flicks that Brennan had mostly criticized.

Hodgins came out of his reverie only to find Booth glaring at him. Shrugging, he said unapologetically, "Hey, just sayin', man."

Throwing his hands up in aggravation, Booth rounded on the squints. "Okay, why the hell are you all taking her side?" he hissed, the frustration he was feeling boiling in his stomach until he felt sick and more than just slightly suffocated. "_She _left _me_ first," he reminded them all, a little hurt that none of them were on _his_ side, if they had to take sides at all. After all, weren't they his friends, too? Hadn't he been hurt, too? "I just did what I had to do."

Angela and Cam shared a look before the former sighed, finally relenting a little. "We know," she admitted grudgingly. "And we love you, too, Booth."

"People take sides in a divorce, man," Hodgins shrugged. Seeing that Booth was about to point out the obvious, he added quickly, "I know you guys weren't married, but it…It's the same principle. People take sides. It's a thing."

Angela nodded in agreement to her husband's words, "And Brennan's one of us. We're on her side."

When Booth pointed accusing eyes at Cam, daring her to admit that she was on the side of the woman that she hadn't even liked in the beginning, instead of the side of her oldest friend, Cam merely shrugged, offering him an rueful look. "I was on your side when you were hurting," she held up both hands as though to calm him. "But you've moved on now. You've got Hannah. And she's the one hurting this time, so…I have to be on her side, too, Seeley."

Booth looked away. "In a weird way," he admitted after a long moment of silence. "I'm actually glad you're on her side."

Cam didn't find that weird at all. She'd known Seeley Booth for most of her life, she knew him inside and out. She knew that despite him having 'moved on' with Hannah, he still cared about Brennan. Maybe even loved her, without him even knowing about it. And because of that, even if all his friends weren't on his side in a metaphorical divorce, she knew that he wouldn't be himself if he didn't care about Brennan's heart while she recovered.

"Remember what I told you?" she reminded him gently. "At the bar, the first time you admitted to me about your feelings for her?" Booth nodded, remembering the day two years ago very clearly. "She needs us now, more than you do."

Silence enveloped the group, only the sounds of pen scratching on paper being heard as Wendell noted down his own observations of the remains.

Finally, Hodgins spoke up, "Plus I'm not too sure you're as naïve as you claim to be about government conspiracies. I mean, dammit, all you feds must know something about Roswell."

Booth stared at him in shock. "_What!_"

"I can keep a secret," Hodgins added earnestly. "Just tell me and I'll switch sides."

Angela gasped in outrage. "Hodgins!" she smacked her husband on the arm.

Booth shook his head, his lips pursed into a thin line. "Know what? You're insane," he pointed at them individually. "All of you."

"Just one detail…" Hodgins pleaded shamelessly.

"I'm leaving," Booth announced unnecessarily, putting away his pen and notebook in his jacket's inside pocket before turning away from the group, heading towards the stairs.

Cam, as though just realizing that they were all in the workplace and not out gossiping on their own free time, ushered Hodgins towards the body as well, grabbing her own pair of gloves to start working on the flesh.

Angela watched as Booth left, a disapproving look on her face. "Well, we all know that's what you do best," she muttered under her breath, too low for anyone else to hear. So maybe she wasn't as forgiving as Brennan when it came to the mess the two partners were in - she couldn't help it. She had only been rooting for Booth and Brennan to get together since day one. It wasn't anything more than her love for Brennan, and knowing for certain that they belonged together that had spurred her on for years, and riled her up now when everything had turned out so wrong.

The sound of a door opening diverted her attention from the agent exiting the lab. She turned her head and her scowl deepened as she watched Brennan and Kira exit her office, hand in hand and laughing loudly with one another.

Booth might not take her warning seriously, but Angela knew that she was right. Watching as Brennan left the lab with Kira in tow, the redhead throwing her hair back and Brennan gazing at her, completely entranced, Angela steeled herself.

It had been far too painful for her to watch Brennan fall to pieces after Kira had shattered her the last time. Brennan wasn't thinking straight, Angela already knew that. She wasn't grieving her lost chance with Booth, having sealed it tight and shoved it so far deep into the recesses of her mind and heart. She was jumping straight into the arms of Kira, who probably had the worst timing in the world. Angela couldn't depend on anyone else, not even Hodgins who had been around the last time Kira had broken Brennan's heart.

_I'm the best friend_, she resolved. _I should be the one to talk sense into her_.

* * *

Unfortunately for Angela, talking sense into Brennan wasn't an easy task.

Brennan had been on such a ridiculous cloud nine all week that nothing Angela said failed to register to her, especially if it had anything to do with Kira and how Angela thought it was all a huge mistake for her to be opening up that can of worms all over again.

Thankfully, Angela was a resourceful person. Resourceful _and_ persuasive. She'd managed to get Brennan hooked on a line about how they hadn't had any time to spend together ever since Kira had gotten back into town - which was actually true. Getting her to agree to a girls' day out this weekend had been a piece of cake after that.

"They've been in there for twenty minutes," Angela reported to the rest of the team, who were all taking a well deserved break together on the lounge above the platform, overlooking the rest of the lab.

They had just closed their case hours ago. Booth and Brennan had made the arrest and had gotten an easy confession from the killer. Booth was back at the Hoover, working on the paperwork, and Kira had been in Brennan's office for nearly half an hour, worrying Angela sick.

"What do you think they're doing in there?"

Hodgins raised an eyebrow at her. "Babe, think about it - what do _we_ do in your office for twenty minutes?" he pointed out.

Cam, leaning back against a plush chaise, grimaced. "Oh, dear God," she groaned. "Do we really need to mention that in everyday conversation?" she glared daggers at Hodgins, who merely smiled amusedly at her.

_It would be nice if at least one of my employees was afraid of me_, Cam thought sulkily before chiding herself on how childish she'd just sounded.

Turning back to face his wife, who had her back turned to him, leaning against the railing and willing herself to somehow get x-ray vision so she could see through the closed blinds of Brennan's office, Hodgins continued, "Ange, really, you're starting to get paranoid on me."

"And coming from him, our resident conspiracy theorist, too," Cam deadpanned.

Angela finally swiveled around to look at the other two. "You know, you of all people shouldn't think I'm crazy for anticipating the worst," she pointed an accusing finger at Hodgins.

He blinked at her. "Because I'm a nutty conspiracy theorist who believes that next year, the world will come to an end just like the Mayans predicted?"

She scowled. "No," she replied sharply.

He shrugged. "Okay, but you'll thank me later when the world does come to an end and I've already booked us seats on a ship so we'll be perfectly safe from the destruction," he told her smugly.

She ignored that. "You were there the last time she was here, Jack," she reminded him. "You saw what happened."

Hodgins sighed, a little disgruntled that he hadn't been able to distract his wife. "I know, I know, it was terrible," he recalled. "But, baby…That was eight years ago. People change, especially when it's been that long."

Reaching out, he took her hand and pulled her closer to him. "Maybe she's changed, Angie," he suggested gently. "Maybe she's grown up and she's really here to make it work and you're just gonna end up pushing Dr. B away if you keep doing this."

Angela looked away from him for a few seconds before sighing. Stepping closer to her husband, she settled on his lap, letting the comfort of his arms around her wash over her. "What if she hasn't changed?" she countered quietly. "It was disconcerting for you to watch her become so unlike herself, but it was painful to me. I can't do it again."

Before Hodgins could think of something to say to comfort her, Cam nudged Angela's leg with her elbow. "Angela," she murmured, nodding towards the stairs leading up to the platform.

Angela and Hodgins looked up to see Kira climbing the last few steps, a nervous smile on her face as her eyes found Angela. "Hi," she said awkwardly.

Angela stared at her silently.

Cam cleared her throat. "I thought you and Brennan were headed out for the night?" she asked, making polite conversation with Kira. She wasn't sure what to make of Kira. Angela had been so adamant that Kira wasn't a good person but from what Cam could tell from the few days Kira had been hanging around the Jeffersonian, the woman was a nice enough person. Then again, she didn't know Kira well and she definitely didn't have history with her the way Angela and Brennan did.

Kira nodded, tucking a lock of red hair behind her ear. "We are," she said quickly. "But, um…Tempe had a last minute conference call with a team in China so…I'm waiting until she's done."

"Oh."

Another silence fell on the group.

Kira shuffled her feet slightly, sneaking looks at Angela. "Listen, Angela…Can we talk?" she asked quietly.

Angela glared.

"Please?" Kira prompted.

Angela sighed, nodding her head and climbing off her husband's lap. She followed Kira a few steps away from Hodgins and Cam, both of them leaning their sides against the railing of the platform.

"Angela…" Kira trailed off on a sigh. "I don't know what else to say except I'm sorry. I know I screwed up before – not just with Tempe, but with you, too, and I…I shouldn't have just ran but I couldn't stay any longer, Ange. You know me. I-I had to go. The time just wasn't right."

Angela shook her head. "You know, if that was the first time you did something like that to her, I would've maybe forgiven you at some point," she told Kira. "But there's a pattern, Kira, and she might still be swimming in denial but I'm not."

"Angela, I…I won't hurt her," Kira insisted.

"Not again, you mean?" Angela quirked a perfectly sculptured eyebrow.

Kira pursed her lips, a flash of annoyance crossing her pretty features. "I love her, Angela," she murmured quietly, meeting the artist's dark eyes steadily. "I do."

Angela stared at her for a long while and, just for a brief second, she caught sight of the Kira Fusco she'd known and loved in college. _That_ Kira had been freer in the sense that she didn't feel so trapped being where she was. She was free to love, free to accept love and free to be.

Somewhere along the way, Kira had gotten restless and jaded even. Angela had a feeling it had a lot to do with Kira's stuffy upbringing and her snobby mother.

Just for a second, she allowed herself to feel the fondness she'd once held for the woman and felt pity for her restless existence.

"But do you love her enough?" Angela countered.

Kira fell silent.

Angela straightened up, slightly triumphant even if she didn't want to be for this particular instance. "Look," she sighed. "I _do_ know you, Kira. And I know that this isn't going to be enough for you. At some point, you're going to get the itch to run, to find something new and exciting and you're going to pack up and leave."

Kira's eyes flashed and she opened her mouth to argue.

Angela held up a hand to stop her before she could say anything. "Unless you can tell me without a doubt that, this time, you're ready to really work it out. That you're in it for the long haul and you're ready to stay and get committed and stop being a flight risk…I don't want to hear it," she warned.

"Brennan is my best friend, Kira," she lowered her voice, her gaze growing intense at her words. "I can't let you use her that way again."

Kira's lips formed a thin, hard line. "I have never once used her," her voice was slightly harsh. "Not once. I love her. I always have. All the mistakes I've ever made wasn't a reflection of my feelings for her."

She sniffed slightly, crossing her arms in a defensive pose. "Temperance understands that," she said tightly.

Angela rolled her eyes. "Temperance would believe anything when it comes to you," Angela stated dryly. "She's a little too gullible in that sense."

Kira looked like she was about to argue before changing her mind, shaking her head. "You know what? I don't have to prove myself to you," she said firmly. "I know I've been a disappointment to Tempe in the past – and you were affected by it. Obviously. You're a good friend to her so I wouldn't have expected otherwise. But this is between me and Tempe, Angela."

Angela clenched her jaw, watching as Kira turned to leave.

Kira froze for a second before turning back around to face Angela. "You know, I don't expect you to believe me when I say this but I'm here to stay this time," she said. At Angela's derisive scoff, she sighed. "I am. People can change, Angie, and I have."

"Coming from the bride who ran away from her wedding because she felt like it was the wrong thing to do," Angela pointed out.

Kira frowned at her. "It would've been even more horrible of me to go through with it if I didn't love John enough to be his wife forever," she argued.

At Angela's pointed look, Kira shook her head. "You can't compare that. You can't. I've never felt for John what I feel for Tempe," she said, a soft smile coming across her lips as she thought of Temperance. "Listen…All I'm trying to say is that this is real, what's going on between Tempe and I. It's not her that's in denial. It's you."

Angela felt anger rise in her chest, causing a bitter warmth to spread. "Is that so?" she asked through gritted teeth.

Kira bit her lip and tentatively took a metaphorical step forward. "I don't want to interfere – and we may have fallen out a long time ago, Angie, but you're very important to Tempe and I'd hate for anything to happen between the two of you," she spoke in a rush, almost stumbling over her words in an attempt to explain it all and not get misunderstood at the same time.

Unfortunately for her, Angela was pretty defensive when it came to Kira's presence in their lives and took offense to her words. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I mean…" Kira trailed off, looking around as though expecting Brennan to overhear somehow. "I don't want you to end up pushing Tempe away because of me."

"Brennan would never choose you over me," she said fiercely.

Kira frowned at her. "It's not about choosing sides, Angela," she said, a little exasperation in her tone. "I'm just saying…"

"Well, don't," Angela interrupted, glaring. "We've been friends for a good solid seventeen years. You abandoned her twice. No matter what, she wouldn't choose you."

"Angela…"

"And don't go pretending like it's 1995 and we're back in college, Kira," she interrupted. "Your sporadic drops into her life mean nothing. You don't know the first thing about me and Bren."

The two of them stared at each other for a long moment – Angela red-faced and still fuming as she breathed heavily, Kira looking a little stunned and hurt – before the sounds of approaching footsteps broke their gaze.

"Hey, guys," Brennan said, smiling as she walked over to Kira. She was oblivious to Cam and Hodgins' awkward expressions or Angela's slightly angry one, her eyes riveted on Kira whose lips had quirked upwards at the sight of Brennan, accepting the kiss Brennan leaned in to give. "I'm good to go, Kira. I'm sorry that took so long."

Kira shook her head, her hurt expression transformed into an easy, loving smile so smoothly. "Oh, I don't mind," she assured Brennan, one arm wrapping around Brennan's waist and her other hand resting on Brennan's shoulder, her body leaning into Brennan's side as she took comfort in the embrace of a familiar lover.

"I was just catching up with Angela and getting to know her husband. Hodgins, was it?" she said, having heard the name when Brennan had told her all about Angela's less than traditional marriage to the bug man.

Angela didn't seem pleased at all but Brennan beamed widely. "Really? Well, I'm glad you two are speaking civilly again," she nodded her head approvingly. She knew that Angela's falling out with Kira had been due to Brennan's breakup with her that first time in college, and she'd felt guilty about that because Kira and Angela had gotten along so smoothly before that. She was glad that they had put whatever it was behind them.

Angela resisted the urge to snort in response to Brennan's words.

Cam, wanting to be the peacemaker, at least for as long as peace would stay, spoke up. "Dr. Brennan, are you heading out?" she asked.

Brennan nodded. "I hope that's okay, Cam," she said easily. "I'm bringing my paperwork home. It's just that Kira and I have plans tomorrow and we want to get an early start…"

Cam shook her head. "No, go ahead," she assured the anthropologist. "It's Friday night after all."

Angela had started at Brennan's words. Angry glare fading, she frowned at her best friend. "Bren… Tomorrow?" she asked, trying her best to avoid looking at Kira wrapped around Brennan. "_We_ have plans tomorrow, remember?" she reminded Brennan. "We were going out all day? Spa, brunch then shopping?"

Brennan winced. "Oh, wow!" she pressed a hand to her cheek. "I'd completely forgotten about that…" She turned to look at Kira, biting her lower lip in contemplation. "Kira…"

Kira looked between Brennan and Angela, a contemplative look on her face. "You know what? You should go with Angela," Kira urged Brennan. "I mean, you made plans with her first, even if you forgot. It wouldn't be fair…"

Brennan sighed. "I guess you're right," she murmured.

Angela shot her a look. "Gee, don't sound so excited, Bren," she commented sarcastically as Hodgins came up to their little group, standing beside her and wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

Brennan gave Angela an apologetic look. "I'm sorry," she said sincerely. "I am excited to go out with you. We haven't spent time together outside of work in a while. It's just…You know, this is the first time Kira and I will be going away together for such a long time…We did all that planning…"

"We did," Kira agreed. "But I don't want you to cancel on Angela due to me…God knows you get too busy sometimes and I'm sure you two need to bond or whatever."

Angela shot Kira a look, disgruntled that she was being so nice. She still didn't like Kira, nor did she trust her, but it would make it easier on her conscience to be a bitch to someone evil rather than nice.

Brennan, meanwhile, was nodding, agreeing with Kira's words. However, she didn't exactly want to cancel on her girlfriend, either. Then again, the reason for her day out with Angela was because Angela had thought they weren't spending enough time together recently. Cancelling on her would be counterproductive.

She was sold, though, when Kira said reassuringly, "I'll call the inn, baby. I'm sure we can bump it to a different weekend."

"You two were going to go to an inn?" Cam asked, stepping closer.

Kira nodded, a happy grin making its way across her lips. "We were going to take a trip up to Vermont," she explained. "We went to this charming little inn eight years ago for a mini holiday and Tempe and I thought it would be nice to do that again. It's just such a romantic place," she sighed, running her hand up and down Brennan's arm.

"Aw, that sounds so sweet," Cam smiled. "I didn't know you did 'sweet', Dr. Brennan."

Brennan's face scrunched up in an odd combination of reproached embarrassment, mumbling something Cam didn't quite catch.

Hodgins, squeezing Angela's shoulders, leaned down to whisper in her ear. "You might not like Kira but maybe you could support Brennan," he murmured quietly. She gave him a look as though to say 'why would I ever do something like that?' "Come on, babe. She deserves a vacation, right?"

Angela didn't want to say anything to let Brennan off the hook for tomorrow, letting her be free to go to Vermont with Kira. But Hodgins was giving her that soft, sweet smile of his and his words and Kira's words earlier both mingled together, giving her a paranoid jolt for a second about her lack of support for Brennan's renewed relationship leading to a conflict between them.

Before she could stop herself, she had blurted out, "You should go to Vermont."

She regretted her words immediately but everyone had heard her and Brennan and Kira were both looking at her now, surprised expressions on their faces. She had no way of turning back.

"Ange?" Brennan prompted uncertainly.

Taking a deep breath, and strength from her husband's warm body pressed up to her side, Angela continued reluctantly. "We can go shopping any other day, Bren," she smiled slightly. "You should go to Vermont. I mean…God, when was the last time you had a vacation? And you've been planning and stuff…You should go."

Kira was giving her a grateful smile, a proud look on her face as though she was pleased Angela had gotten over whatever hostility towards her to grant the two of them a weekend away.

"Do you mean it?" Brennan asked, still unsure.

Forcing a smile on her lips and trying her best not to look Kira's way, Angela nodded. "Yeah. I'm sure," she said in a tight voice Brennan didn't seem to notice. "We'll go shopping when you get back."

Brennan was already distracted by Kira yet again, the two exchanging flirty smiles right there. When Kira's arms lowered, both of her hands enclosing around one of Brennan's, Brennan turned to the others. "I think we'll be heading out now," she said. "I'm starving."

She threw Angela a wide smile. "And, Angela – thank you. We will definitely go out once I return," she promised.

As she allowed Kira to lead her away from the group and down the stairs, Brennan called out, "You should go to the spa, anyway. We already have an appointment, don't we? Take Cam with you! Goodnight, everyone!"

The remaining three chorused a farewell to Brennan and Kira.

_It was a one-time thing_, Angela assured herself as she watched the duo walked away. _You're just being paranoid because of what Kira and Hodgins said right before this. Brennan's _not_ choosing _her_. No way_.

But, like William S. Burroughs once said, sometimes paranoia's just having all the facts. And the fact was that Brennan was following the same pattern all over again. She was falling much too hard for Kira, going so far as to let Kira move in with her barely a week after her arrival in DC, and getting so distracted by her that she seemed to be blocking the rest of the world out, acting as though Kira was the only thing in her world.

Except this time was worse, and Angela didn't know why nor did she know how to stop it. All she knew was that her best friend was heading in a very unhealthy direction and Angela had the worst possible feeling in her stomach, one that screamed at her not to follow. Like all good best friends, she knew she had to be there for Brennan. Lord knew Brennan had done her best to be there for Angela during her hard times, bless her oblivious soul.

But she had been there for Brennan both times before when Kira had been around. How was she supposed to do it all over again, especially since seeing Brennan all broken after Kira would leave would be just…Horrifying? Was she supposed to just keep doing it over and over again no matter how many times this happened in their lives? How could a woman so smart be so stupid, and not learn a lesson that had been thrust into her face one too many times?

* * *

"I knew the butler did it," Booth boasted, flipping his poker chip in the air and catching it in his hand.

They had just solved their latest case, one that didn't involve rich people or butlers. Brennan shot him a confused look from where she sat next to him on the couch up on the lounge. They were all supposed to head to the Founding Fathers for a drink, as was customary after solving a case, but they'd been far too exhausted after such a trying case that they'd ended up just splayed out up on the lounge instead, wanting to rest for a little while.

"Booth…There was no butler in our case," she pointed out rationally.

He rolled his eyes, though he was smiling as he looked at her. "I didn't mean it literally, Bones," he said gently. "I just meant, you know, it was the obvious guy who did it."

She nodded her head, seeming to accept his answer, even if she didn't know what the significance of butlers were in his answer. "Oh, okay," she said, lifting her arms above her head and lacing her fingers together, stretching. "God, I'm so tired…" she sighed, dropping her arms and rubbing at her eyes wearily.

"I know," Cam groaned. "I hate federal cases."

"No, you don't," Booth teased. "You'd be bored to death without 'em."

Hodgins snorted. "Ha! You wish," he retorted, though he threw a friendly smile at the agent to show that he had simply been joking.

Brennan barely paid any mind to her friends' banter. Instead, her attention was on Angela who sat on the chaise directly opposite the one she was sitting on. Reaching out with her foot, she gently nudged Angela on the shin. "Hey," she said quietly, prompting her best friend to look up from where her gaze had been fixed on the ground. "Are you okay? You're being very quiet."

That in itself was very strange because Angela had never been a quiet person. Even after closing a case, she would almost always still be chatty enough to talk about horrible the murder was. However, Brennan also knew that Angela would feel for the victim, and her big heart would always weep for the families who had lost their loved ones. Maybe she was just absorbed in the details of the case.

_She's been quiet for days, though_, Brennan reminded herself with a frown.

Angela forced a smile upon her face so bad that even Brennan was able to see through it. "I'm fine," she nodded. "So…Are we just gonna sit here all night or go to the Founding Fathers? I know I could use a drink."

It wasn't the case that had bothered her - though the murder had been a horrendous thing, it wasn't nearly as gruesome as some of the things they'd encountered in the past years - but, rather, Kira's constant presence at the lab.

Hodgins and Cam had, without Angela's knowledge, been actually quite fond of Kira, finding her to be quite a pleasant person to be around. It was quite surprising considering Angela's intense dislike for the woman. However, having borne witness to the tension between the two women, they were quite wary around her, especially if Angela was around. Booth had simply picked up on the tension in that perceptive way he usually did, and had been extremely uncomfortable around all of it. Brennan, of course, remained as oblivious to it as ever.

Angela was mature enough to admit, at least only to herself, that she wasn't simply distressed because of Brennan's relationship with Kira and how Angela knew that it would only end badly all over again - and soon, because Kira wasn't the type of woman to stick around long for anything. Her own dislike for Kira and the mutual enmity between both women had played quite a large part in feeding her fears and insecurity about losing her best friend to the one person in the entire world who could probably make it happen.

It wasn't like she hadn't tried being a stronger person. She knew that if Brennan was playing right into Kira's hand, she wasn't doing it on purpose. Still, Angela couldn't help but blame Brennan a little. It wasn't like she hadn't been burned - twice - by Kira before. She should've learned by now, no matter how 'irresistible' she might find Kira to be.

Brennan hissed, checking her watch and wincing. "Actually…" she trailed off apologetically.

Angela's head snapped around to her. "Oh, you're kidding me?" she asked incredulously.

But Brennan merely shrugged, still looking sorry. "It's just that I've made plans with Kira," she started to explain. "And we sat here for so long…I mean, I didn't even realize the time. I'm really sorry…"

Booth, who noted the look on Angela's face, figured he'd probably better say something to ease the tension. He wasn't sure, exactly, what to make of Kira, having spent the tiniest amount of time with her amongst the group. He hadn't taken Angela's warning to heart and a brief mention from Cam told him that his old friend found the redhead quite likeable. And asides from the weirdness of seeing Brennan kissing another woman, he didn't really have any problems with Kira.

He didn't think Brennan's relationship with Kira Fusco would be a lasting one. It wasn't due to anything Angela said - though she ranted a lot these days about Kira's imperfections and flighty tendencies - or because Kira was a woman, though that certainly played a part (Brennan, right before Kira showed up, had been in the mindset of Angela in her twenties. He wasn't fond of _that_, either, but he at least knew that men weren't something she'd give up easily).

He just couldn't see Brennan being in a long term relationship with Kira. There was something off about the redhead, something that failed to click when the two were together. He knew Brennan probably didn't see it at the moment but the time would come when the relationship would end, _that_ he was absolutely, one hundred percent sure of.

So, taking up the role of gentle-toned buffer, he said, "Hey, it's okay, Bones. I probably should get home, too…"

Angela interrupted him. "No, it's not okay!" she said, her weariness and frustration at Brennan bubbling over. "It's not okay."

Brennan was taken aback by Angela's sudden outburst. "Hey," she murmured, her tone softened by stunned concern. "What's with you?"

"What's with me?" Angela repeated, glaring at her. "Are you kidding me, Brennan?"

Brennan's eyes had gone round in shock, and her jaw dropped at what, to her, was anger that had come out of nowhere. "Angela…"

Angela shook her head, "No, you know, there are a hell of a lot of things in life you're oblivious about, but _this_?…This shouldn't be one of those things, Brennan. You're smarter than that." Leaving her best friend gaping at her from where she sat, Angela rose from her seat abruptly and walked off towards the stairs.

Hodgins made to stand up to go after his wife, but Cam held out an arm, stopping him just as Brennan shot up from her seat. "Let them," Cam murmured to a worried looking Hodgins. "They need to talk."

Brennan jogged after Angela, catching up to her at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the lounge area. She reached out for Angela's hand, surprised when Angela yanked her hand out of her grip, spinning around to face her. Angela's beautiful skin was flushed, and her eyes blazed as she locked gaze with Brennan.

"Ange, you're saying things, and they don't make sense to me," Brennan said, stuffing her hands into her jacket pocket.

"Yeah, I know they don't make sense to you," Angela said wryly. "Because you don't listen to me. I try, you know, I try to talk to you and all you ever do is block out what you don't want to hear."

Brennan simply blinked at her best friend. "What's all this about?" she asked carefully.

Angela sounded frustrated when she replied, unable to believe the blinding naivety of the anthropologist. "This is about you, falling for Kira all over again when you know you're only going to get burned in the end," she said. "This is about you being smart enough to change the world, but stupid enough to let someone break your heart over and over again."

Brennan's porcelain skin flushed red and anger sparked in her own chest. "Hey!" she protested. "What Kira did in the past was-"

"Unforgivable?"

Brennan shook her head, curls flying everywhere. "_No_," she insisted harshly. "It was horrible. And I was hurt, I know that."

"Do you, though?" Angela demanded.

Brennan raised an eyebrow at her. "I was the one who felt the pain, Angela," she replied testily. "I remembered. I know. She hurt me. I _know_."

Angela shook her head, looking away for a moment. "It doesn't feel like you know," she said finally. "She comes around and you fall for her, and then she leaves and you're in pieces. Then it's like it all never happened when she comes back…"

Brennan exhaled loudly. "Why can't you get it?" she asked, her voice almost desperate with need for her best friend to understand. "Why can't you see that I need her to be…Here. I need her."

"No, you don't. You-"

"I do," Brennan interrupted. "I do. Because she…She's all I've got left. And she makes me _feel_. She always makes me feel. I need that."

Angela's hardened eyes softened. "You deserve better," she said softly.

Brennan's voice caught in her throat, a lump forming there and making it hard for her to breathe or speak or to do anything other than try her hardest not to cry. "I don't get 'better'," she said in such a self-deprecating tone that it made Angela want to weep for her. "I get Kira…And don't you see? Don't you see that she could be what I need?"

The fire was back, pushing Angela to convince Brennan, to make her see the truth. "But she's not," she said adamantly. "She always leaves, Brennan. She always leaves you, and you know she's going to leave you again. You know it, deep down. Just admit it yourself, please. Please just do this one thing."

"She might not leave again," Brennan argued, her voice wavering at the thought of Kira leaving all over again. "Maybe she needed space before. Maybe I wasn't as good for her before. I know I wasn't…I wasn't ready. My heart…It wasn't good. It wasn't good." Sucking in a deep, shaky breath, Brennan cleared her throat as much as she could and spoke despite the lump still lodged there. "But I could be better. Maybe I already am. She could see that and decide to stay."

Angela stared incredulously at Brennan. "Are you listening to yourself?" she demanded angrily, hands on her hips. "Seriously. Are you? Do you realize just how insane all of that sounded? Kira left because she's a floozy who can't commit to any one thing-"

"Angela!" Brennan snapped, glaring right back at her.

The two of them simply stood, facing off with daggers shooting at each other from their eyes, hands on their hips, for a long, long moment.

Finally, voice low and controlled as though she was trying to reign in her anger and not yell, Angela said, "She's left you twice. Not once, but twice."

"I remember."

"And, you know, the last time, I could understand," Angela admitted begrudgingly. "Kira left so suddenly the first time. You didn't have time to say goodbye, didn't know what went wrong. But then she did it all over again and, God, Brennan…" She shook her head, grimacing. "I'm your best friend, Bren."

The soft admission was enough for Brennan's anger to dissipate. "You are," she agreed, nodding, her voice equally soft.

"And I love you," Angela continued. "We've been there for each other for years. I wouldn't change all of that, and I don't regret any of it…But when you're heartbroken over Kira, you get so messed up. And it scares me. It _scares_ me, Brennan."

Angela's dark brown eyes had filled up with tears, causing Brennan's heart to skip a beat. She reached out for her friend but Angela shook her head, waving off her touch. Brennan let her arms fall back to her sides and simply waited for her to speak.

Once she had herself in control, Angela started again. "It scares me," she said again. "Because it's like you fell off the deep end so completely, I don't know if you'll ever surface again. I don't know how to find you and I'm scared and I'm panicking but you're off going to war zones and beating up gang leaders and getting yourself arrested every other day…"

Brennan took that literally, and despite the way she felt so stunned over Angela's admission (because even though she knew that Angela worried for her the last two times Kira had been gone, she never knew about all these things she was telling her now…And Angela simply wasn't one to keep anything to herself, especially not to her own best friend), she felt the need to correct her. "I wasn't arrested every day…"

Angela ignored that. Sniffling, she brought her hand up to her face and wiped hastily at her eyes, glad beyond belief that she had foregone normal mascara for the waterproof kind years ago. "But, you know, I can't do it again," she said, looking up through slightly swollen eyelids to look at Brennan. "It takes so much out of me, Bren, to see you like that, to worry about you so much…To see you shatter. I can't do it. It's so draining and I feel so tired every hour of every day…" She sounded so defeated, so weary of it all.

"You don't have to," Brennan was eager to say. "It's different this time, Ange. I know it. She's different and I'm different, and I think…I think it'll be good this time around. Please…Please just support me. Just…Be my best friend."

_I am_, Angela thought to herself. _It's why I'm doing this_. Squaring her shoulders and steeling herself, she spoke in a voice that was deceptively strong, "It's me or her, Brennan." She watched as Brennan's eyes grew as wide as saucers, her lips forming an 'o' of surprise. "Which is it?"

It had been undeniable to Angela that Brennan would choose her, even after the insecurities Kira's words had caused her. They went back so many years, they were more sisters than best friends, and if Brennan believed what Angela did, she, too, would say that they were one of each other's soul mates.

So, she had asked Brennan to choose, firmly believing with her whole heart that Brennan would choose her, no matter how painful it would be for her to let go of Kira. And though she was prepared for Brennan to despise her for a while for having to do such a thing, she knew Brennan would move on much easier if she were to let go now than if she allowed herself to be pulled in deeper before Kira broke it off all over again. The time would come when Brennan would forgive Angela - and maybe even thank her when the right person came along (_or, I don't know, break it off with a certain blonde journalist that they don't belong with_, she thought to herself.)

Imagine her shock, then, when instead of answering 'I choose you' straight away, Brennan paused.

In the span of the ten seconds silence that it took for Brennan to consider, Angela's face had crumbled, and she was shaking her head. "You _hesitated_?" she whispered, as though she couldn't believe it.

"Why does there have to be a choice at all?" Brennan asked, her tone shaky and tearful. Her voice rose when Angela took a few steps away from her, tears threatening to spill onto her cheeks. "Why does it have to be an ultimatum?"

"You hesitated!" Angela repeated again, her voice still incredulous. "Really! It…You have to think about it?" Clearly, their relationship meant differently to each of them. _I guess Kira was right_, Angela thought bitterly.

Brennan bit her lip, taking half a tentative step forward before rocking back on her heels. "I…She…" she tried to find the right words to say, to not mess up this moment because she knew it was pivotal, knew that she was risking one of the longest friendships she'd ever had. "She means a lot to me, Ange," she pleaded softly. "I can't just…I mean, think about it. Please. If-if you were me, if you were in my shoes."

"I wouldn't have hesitated," Angela replied coldly, immediately, not having to think at all.

The two of them stared at one another for a long while. Finally, Brennan broke the silence, her heart jumping to her throat. "So that's it?" she asked brokenly. "We're just…We're not friends anymore?"

Angela could feel her heart pounding loudly, blood rushing to her ears. What was the point in trying to be friends with someone who would choose someone else over you? What was the point in being friends with someone who would choose a person who kept abandoning her instead of someone who had been there for her through thick or thin? What did that really say about their friendship at all? Had they really been as close as she'd thought or had Brennan kept her at a distance all this while, just like she had everyone else, without her even realizing it.

Swallowing painfully, she said, "I guess we're not."

Taking one last look at her best friend - _former best friend_, she corrected herself spitefully - Angela turned on her heel and walked away, only vaguely aware that her husband had joined her. Her knees had started to shake, her chest heaving with her restrained sobs, and it wasn't until Hodgins' hand enveloped her own did it feel slightly easier to breathe. _But how do you breathe when you'd just lost one of your soul mates?_

"Shh," Hodgins murmured, gathering her in his arms the moment they were locked in her office. She burrowed her head in the crook of his neck, letting her tears fall freely as she hugged him tight. Never in her life had she felt so much relief that he was with her. She allowed herself to fall into him, taking comfort in the fact that at least she had one of her soul mates left.

Brennan watched as Angela left before turning around and walking in the opposite direction, heading towards the lab's exit. Tears started to form in her own eyes, but she kept her head low and her hands stuck in her pockets, swallowing hard every few seconds and fighting to keep her tears at bay and her breathing under control.

"Bones!" she heard, and almost rolled her eyes.

_Not now, Booth_, she silently pleaded. The last thing she needed was for him to witness yet another one of her crying episodes. God, she had just gotten to the point of 'strong Brennan'. When had it all come crumbling down? Why had it taken so little time for it all to fall apart?

Unfortunately for her, Booth didn't have telepathic abilities, and continued to chase after her, finally catching up to her just as she made it into the elevator. "Bones…" his voice was soft and filled with so much sympathy that a tear spilled over onto her cheek.

She reached out and quickly swiped it away. "I'm fine," her voice was tight as she replied, and incredibly tearful. Not even a child would believe her.

He remained silent, unsure how to react, let alone how to comfort her. Brennan and Angela had one of the most solid friendships he'd ever known. Sure, they'd had their fights in the past, but never had their relationship actually ended before.

He wanted to reach out and take her into his arms, but she was doing that thing where she kept herself as far away from him as she could in the small space they shared, and her chin jutted out stubbornly. He knew that meant that she didn't want to be held at the moment, that she was trying to be strong.

Besides, could he really hold her now and not feel even the slightest pang of what he used to feel for her? He hated that he had to keep such a distance between them, hated that the need for distance meant that he couldn't offer her comfort when she so clearly needed it, but he couldn't help it. He had been a faithful man his whole life and even if he was faithful physically, he needed to be faithful emotionally, too.

A year and a half ago, he'd have ignored her half-hearted attempt at staying strong and gathered her in his arms, holding her tight.

The numbers at the top of the elevator showed they were at the second floor - just two floors away from the basement parking. He had to speak now. "Bones…" he said again, the only word he could think of. "Are you…?" He stopped himself then. Of course she wasn't okay.

But she said it again just the same. "I'm fine," she whispered.

The elevator doors slid open and she practically flew out of it, rushing to her car. He didn't follow, just watched her with sad eyes until the doors slid close again, but she climbed into her car as quickly as she could anyway, sliding the key into the ignition and tearing away from her parking space like a madwoman.

She drove with the same intensity, screeching to a halt right outside the bistro she'd promised Kira she'd meet her at over twenty minutes ago.

Kira was outside, seated on a bench, phone glued to her ear. She looked up at the sound of Brennan's car's tires squealing on the asphalt. She blinked in shock for a moment before standing up, a scowl forming on her lips instead as she hung up the phone. "Tempe, where the hell were you?" she demanded. "You're late! I've been waiting her for forty minutes. And I've been calling you for thirty minutes. The least you can do is call me if you're going to-"

Her words were cut off as Brennan marched right up to her, cupped her face in her hands and pressed her lips to Kira's. She was aware that her hands, her legs, her entire body was trembling but she had no idea how to stop it. So she just continued to kiss her girlfriend, taking in as much of her warmth as she could because her entire body had gone cold the moment Angela had ended their friendship. Kira kissed her back, only pulling back when warm drops of tears started to spill onto Brennan's cheeks and transferred onto hers.

She reached out, wiping at the salty drops with one hand, the other arm wrapping around Brennan comfortingly. "Baby, what's wrong?" she whispered in concern, her head tilted to the side.

Despite every heartbreak she'd caused Brennan, and despite what Angela had accused her of, Kira sincerely did care for Brennan. Maybe not as much as she should, which was why she had such a hard time defending herself when Angela had argued with her at the lab but she did have strong, genuine feelings for the brilliantly beautiful woman in her arms.

Seeing her cry wasn't something she'd ever encountered before - she'd left before she could see the pain in her crystal eyes, knowing that it would be too horrible to bear witness to if she stayed to explain - and it unnerved her to see such a strong woman looked as though she'd crumble to ashes if there was so much as a breeze blowing their way.

Brennan shook her head, not bothering to hide her tears this time around, and not wanting to explain one of the most heart wrenching things that had ever happened to her just minutes after it had happened. "Let's go home," she said firmly.

Kira frowned, shooting a look at the bistro over her shoulder. "But dinner…?"

Brennan reached out and kissed her deeply, letting Kira know her intentions clearly without words. She noted with slight pleasure, deeply tinged with the sorrow she couldn't seem to shake off, that Kira' eyes were clouded over when they pulled away. "Let's go home," she repeated, and this time Kira didn't argue.

As she drove, Brennan's emotions continued to flicker, alternating between deep sorrow and incredulous anger, both directed at Angela. She knew that she had been terrible at losing Kira before, but that would never happen again. She was sure of it. She and Kira were both more mature now, emotionally and mentally. There was much more heart invested in their relationship this time around whereas before, the balance of emotional and physical intimacy was more or less tipped.

She just couldn't understand why Angela, her very own best friend who had been there since the beginning of her relationship with Kira, wouldn't support her. Angela knew better than anyone how Brennan had always wished for a chance to make things work with Kira, to give it a real shot. Now she'd finally been given the chance and all Angela would do was get angry at her.

It didn't make sense to her at all.

"Kitten," Kira's voice pulled her out of her thoughts. One look around at her surrounding caused her to start, shocked. She was standing in front of her bedroom door - she had driven all the way back to her apartment, gotten into her building, rode the elevator and stepped into her house without even realizing it. She turned her gaze on Kira, who was still wearing a worried expression on her face. "Tempe, are you alright?"

Brennan gave her the best impression of a smile that she had. "I'm okay," she said quietly. She would be okay, Brennan decided. She would prove Angela wrong. Kira would stay and they'd be happy together and Angela would realize that she'd been wrong over time. She would apologize and Brennan would accept and they'd be friends again. Soon.

Stepping closer to Kira, Brennan twined her arms around the other woman and brought her in for a kiss. She backed them towards the darkened room, Kira's chuckles against her lips making her smile even for just a bit. Just as they had stepped over the threshold, Brennan pulled away and gave Kira a searching look. "You'll stay, won't you?" she asked, her voice low and quiet, but her words deafening in the stillness of their embrace.

Kira blinked. She had a feeling that Brennan didn't just mean 'will you stay tonight?' even if they were already practically living together. _For now_, a voice couldn't help but add quietly, harshly, in her mind.

Letting a smile shape on her lips, Kira nodded. "Of course," she assured Brennan. "Of course I'd stay. I'm not going anywhere."

Brennan gazed into Kira's gorgeous green eyes, letting her thumb stroke gently over her smooth cheek. Her mind wandered for a moment, involuntarily, and the green turned into brown, the body pressed to hers more masculine, the smile more charming, the skin tanner. She shook her head almost imperceptibly, setting her lips into a thin line. Booth wasn't hers to love anymore. He wasn't hers to dream about, wasn't hers to hold or kiss or take comfort in. But Kira was. Kira was here and hers and beautiful and charming in her own way.

So she smiled right back at Kira. "Okay," she agreed, leaning in to accept her kiss.

As their kisses grew more and more heated by the minute, Brennan kicked the door close behind her. She was determined to lose herself in Kira, and she was determined to let go of all the heartbreak she felt, be it from Booth or Angela.

She was going to heal.

_I have to heal_, she thought, almost pleading though she had no idea who was pleading to. Closing her eyes, lost in the momentary pleasure of being as close to another human being as she could get, Brennan willed herself to drown.

* * *

"We only see what we want to see, and believe what we want to believe. And it works. We lie to ourselves so much that, after a while, the lies start to seem like the truth. We deny so much, that we can't recognize the truth, right in front of our faces."

Meredith Grey.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N:** Just for the record, for those of you unsure about Kira's presence and Brennan's sudden change of personality - in chapter 4, at the end with Brennan's date, just because she said all those things about putting Booth in the past doesn't mean that she all of a sudden has moved on. She's obviously very heartbroken over him.

And Kira, as I've stated in chapter 5, is Brennan's blast from the past, from college even. Whoever Brennan was in college, how ever she acted, she wouldn't be as strong as present day Brennan would be, what with everything she'd gone through with losing her family/being in horrible foster care. And it isn't all that hard to imagine that Brennan would be easily used by someone she cared for and not even realize it, is it?

I'll explain more in the coming chapters (Kira will be gone in just two chapters or so, by the way, for those of you who really aren't fans at all), but the main point of Kira coming back at all was for the development in Brennan's heartbreak with Booth, not anything else. I hope, even if you hate the storyline right now, you'll stick it out just a little bit longer.

There's practically no Kira or Hannah in this chapter, however. Just a lot of BB…Hope that's okay with you. And if it's not then you're insane. Get outta here!

Also, in this chapter, BB have a case together where the murderer (Sarah) had a lot of bad things happening in her past. The case wasn't even really touched on but Brennan said some things about Sarah near the end of the chapter…I hope none of you take offence to anything she said. I don't mean anything bad about people who had gone through anything that Sarah had. It's just that Brennan could see parts of herself in Sarah and was demeaning herself instead of Sarah…I just wanted to clear the air first because some people could get offended pretty easily and what Brennan said wasn't exactly kind.

Thanks so much for bearing the wait, for reading this ridiculously long A/N and please continue on with the story. I hope you enjoy. Feel free to leave a line or two to tell me how you felt about this chapter.

P.S. The Jeffersonian scene at the end was one of the main scenes floating around in my head that persuaded me to sit down and draft down this story in the first place. I've had it in mind for a long time and I don't feel like I did it justice but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.

**Disclaimer: **Hart Hanson owns Bones, not me.

*MUSIC*

**Hold Onto Me by Sugarplum Fairies**

**From Where You Are by Lifehouse**

**Poison and Wine by the Civil Wars**

**Light Years Away by Mozella**

**Where I Stood by Missy Higgins **(the Jeffersonian scene at the very end of the chapter)

* * *

"A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow."

William Shakespeare.

* * *

_November 2011_.

"This pie is the best pie in the whole wide world," Booth stated, his tone a little dreamy as he scooped up another morsel of the pastry into his mouth. "Did I mention that?"

Brennan rolled her eyes. "Once or twice," she replied wryly, sipping at her third cup of coffee, her eyes falling on the colorful artwork beneath the glass of the table.

Booth simply grinned impishly at her. "Well, that's 'cuz it's true," he insisted almost childishly before finishing up the last piece of the pie. "I'm gonna have one more."

Brennan reached out and slapped his arm down when he tried to call the waitress over. "Booth, you've already had two pieces," she said disapprovingly. "It's incredibly unhealthy."

"Oh, what are you, my mother?" he teased, shrugging off her hand and calling for the waitress anyway.

Brennan shot him an icy glare. "No, I'm just your partner who wants you to live a long, healthy life that isn't ridden with diseases like diabetes," she said testily.

Booth hummed happily as the waitress slid a new plate of pie in front of him. "Aw, you want me to live a long life," he teased, causing her to throw him a cautionary look over the top of the case file she was reading. Chuckling, Booth dug into his new piece of pie with gusto. "Anyway, as you can see," he gestured to the file in her hands. "Hacker wants you to give confirmation on possible homicide."

Brennan nodded as she studied the photos the FBI field office from Oregon had sent. A group of high school seniors had gone on a camping trip in the Oregon forestry for the sole purpose of burying a time capsule. They had dug into the dirt and found a terrible surprise: the upper half of a decimated skeleton. They'd panicked, scrambled back to town and called the authorities who had been shocked to discover more than one set of remains buried at the site.

Without a forensic anthropology expert on their team, they had no idea if this was the act of a serial killer or some sort of a mass grave for people who had perished under natural causes. Knowing the work done by Brennan in DC, they had forwarded CSU pictures over to the DC field office. Hacker had then bumped it to Booth, requesting that Dr. Brennan take a look at it as soon as possible. If Brennan could identify any signs of murder from the pictures, the two of them were to head to Oregon to take point in the investigation. If she couldn't be sure, they were still to head to Oregon so she could determine the COD for each of the possible victims.

Squinting at the pictures – and causing Booth to stifle a smile before she could see it – Brennan took in every minute detail. "The first set of remains here…They're that of a child. Probably around four or five - no older than seven, at the very most," she stated, causing Booth's lighthearted attitude to darken immediately. "I can't say with certainty what the cause of death is for the child…The pictures aren't very conclusive. As for the second set of remains…There are several fractures that I can confirm are caused peri-mortem, most probably caused by the victim fighting back. There are no obvious signs of murder for two out of three remains that I can tell but the third one has a kerf mark at the sternum…The discoloration right there indicates that the victim bled out here. I can confirm that the third set of remains was a victim of murder," she informed him, taking hold of her coffee and taking a languorous sip.

Booth nodded, a sudden grimness in his expression now. "That probably means the other two were murdered, too," he said.

She frowned at him. "Conjecture," she chided.

"Deductive reasoning," he retorted with a half-smile. "I'm gonna report back to Hacker. You okay to leave at two?"

She sighed, nodding. "Sure, I guess," she muttered, draining the last of her coffee and throwing some bills on the table before standing up along with Booth.

Booth shot her a look. "Wow, don't look so enthusiastic, Bones," he commented, raising an eyebrow at her.

She smiled slightly. "I'm sorry. I just had plans with Kira tonight," she sighed again. "I already had to cancel our plans last night – some colleagues of mine in Berlin needed a consult. She's not going to be happy."

Swallowing down the slight uneasiness he felt at the mention of Brennan's girlfriend – a concept he still wasn't entirely used to after three months; Jared had found out by a slip of Booth's tongue and had proceeded to get misty-eyed, breathing out, "That is _so_ hot…" until Padme had slapped some sense back into him – he gave her his most convincing smile.

"How's that going, by the way?" he asked as casually as possible. "You and…Kira?"

Brennan didn't catch his discomfort, too wrapped up in her own. Although she was trying her best to move on – and, admittedly, Kira being in her life made her forget her pain for short bursts of time – she found herself still drowning in a tidal wave of mixed emotions, still too much in love with him, still too heartbroken over losing him.

Not wanting him to see that, however, she smiled and said, "Things are going good."

He shot her a sideways glance as they stepped towards his truck. "Yeah?" He wasn't sure why he kept prompting her for more when he really didn't need any sort of information on her new relationship.

She shrugged. "She gets a little mad when I have to work late some nights or go out to a crime scene unexpectedly," she admitted. "But I'm sure Hannah's the same way."

The mention of Hannah made them both freeze, their eyes locked on one another.

Hannah hadn't come up in conversation in months even though she was a very big part of Booth's life. At first he'd tactfully avoided mentioning her around Brennan to allow her some peace of mind, knowing that if it were the other way around, he'd appreciate the same. Then it had just become easier not to include Hannah in his conversations with Brennan. He'd felt as though they had regained some semblance of their partnership from before and he didn't want to ruin good progress.

He was far more reserved when it came to Brennan these days and his work life and personal life were two separate things whereas before, they had meshed together, everything in his life revolving around Parker and Brennan solely. It was easier now for him to keep his personal life out of the workplace, not including Brennan or any of the Squints in his home life.

Sure, he missed them sometimes – missed _her_ most of all – but he just had to keep reminding himself that this was for the best. It wasn't just for her benefit, but for his as well. The last thing he wanted was to be ensnared by her again. It was a very distinct possibility so distance wasn't just a precaution, it was a _necessity_.

A loud popping noise – a car tire blowing – shocked them out of their daze.

They averted their eyes, a thick uncomfortable tension settling over them. Booth cleared his throat. "Uhm…Want me to drop you off at your place?" he asked her.

She shook her head immediately. "No, I, uh, I should get to the lab first," she said, slowly backing away from him. "My car is there and I should tell Cam I'm going first."

Despite knowing that she could've told Cam over the phone and she could've left her car in her special reserved spot at the lab's parking lot for days if she wanted to, Booth nodded, accepting her answer.

"I'm just going to walk there," Brennan continued, not meeting his eyes properly. "It's near. I'll meet you at the airport?"

He nodded. "Okay," he said quietly, knowing she wouldn't hear it due to the distance she'd placed between them, walking briskly away from him.

Booth frowned as he watched her walk away. A breeze knocked her scent back his way and he took a ragged breath of the familiar lavender. It took him a moment to remember he was only supposed to be enamored by roses now.

Brennan did her best to calm her racing heart and soothe the bitter sting she felt in her chest as she walked as fast away from the diner without actually breaking into a run. Her broken heart rebelled strongly against her stubborn mind and her bruised ego.

_You have to stop being childish, Temperance_, she chided herself silently as she walked up the steps to the Jeffersonian. _No matter how rocky things are right now between us, Booth is still my partner_.

While things were still tensed between them, Brennan wanted things to return to normal at _some_ point. She wasn't sure if that was possible or if they had to settle for 'almost normal' but if either one of those things were to happen at all, she had to stop being so hurt by Booth moving on. Especially now that she was supposed to be moving on with Kira.

Doing what she did best, she shoved every unresolved emotion and every warbled thought about Booth into the very back **recesses** of her mind, rushing into her office to get whatever she needed to do before leaving as quickly as possible and making a list of things she had to delegate to Wendell as well.

"My new batch of interns would be starting on Thursday," Brennan said to Cam as she tidied up her office hurriedly. "Hopefully I will be back by then so Wendell wouldn't have to deal with them by himself."

Cam nodded. "Sounds reasonable," she said, dark eyes following Brennan's every move from where she stood at the doorway.

Brennan paused as she passed by Cam for the third time in five minutes, dropping a stack of files in her arms. "But if I don't make it back by then, have Wendell read these," she said, nodding at the files. "They are the credentials and information on my new interns, and the file at the very top contains instructions on how to handle them when they arrive."

Shaking her head, Brennan said, "I know they're here to learn but they shouldn't be trusted with valuable work from the getting go." She was wincing as she remembered the unfortunate mishap involving Daisy Wick shattering a fragile skull. Admittedly, Daisy was more competent now but she'd rather avoid similar situations with the new interns just the same.

Cam raised an eyebrow. "First of - I think you mean 'the get-go'," she corrected with a small, fond smile. "And you want Wendell to read _all_ of this?" she asked, her tone growing incredulous. The weight of the stack of files she was carrying was starting to make her arms feel tired and it had hardly been twenty seconds.

Brennan replied with a stern glare. "If _I_ read it, he has to read it, too," she said, in that patented tone that never failed to make Cam feel as though their roles as employee and employer were reversed and she was getting a lecture from her boss. "I don't encourage work done lazily, Dr. Saroyan, and neither should you."

Cam felt a spark of indignant anger. "I don't," she said defensively. "You know that."

Brennan nodded her head once, briefly. "Alright, I'm going to say a quick goodbye to Angela…" she froze, her words catching up to her harried mind. It was still something alien to her, after over two months of not being a part of Angela's life the way she used to be.

"Um, I mean…I-I'm heading out," she corrected herself quickly, averting her eyes when she caught Cam's knowing look.

Clearing her throat, she took one more glance around her office in case she'd missed something. Swiping her kit from the floor near the door, she stalked past Cam as she made her way out. "I will contact you as soon as we reach the scene."

"Good luck in Oregon, Dr. Brennan!" Cam called out as she turned to head to Bone Storage, where Wendell probably was.

"She's going to Oregon?" the trying-too-hard-to-be-nonchalant voice startled Cam. She turned her head to the right and saw Angela casually walking next to her.

Cam tried her best not to roll her eyes. The two 'ex' best friends had been 'separated' for about two and a half months and it was clear they were both miserable about it. Things were tensed and uncomfortable whenever they bumped into each other at work and when they weren't around each other, they'd 'subtly' try and get someone else to tell them the tiniest tidbit of each other's lives. It was obvious they missed each other but every time someone would try and broach the subject of a reconciliation, they'd both get defensive and shut the words out.

"Yes, she is," she answered, figuring it was probably the easiest solution to try and ignore that there was a fight to begin with. "She and Booth have a case up there."

"Oh."

"Well, it's more of a 'possible case'," Cam clarified after a few awkward moments of silence. "They'll have to make sure it's not just a mass grave."

"Mmhm."

"She'll call once she's there."

"Okay."

They stopped outside of Limbo, both of them staring at one another for a few seconds. Cam sighed and started with, "Angela…"

Recognizing the 'this-has-gone-on-long-enough-please-just-go-make-up-with-Brennan-so-we-can-all-stop-walking-on-eggshells' tone, Angela held up a hand. "I don't want to hear it," she interrupted swiftly. "I have some work to do so I'm just going to head back to my office."

Cam rolled her eyes at Angela's back before heading inside Limbo. _At least I can't say I didn't try_, she thought wryly.

* * *

Brennan and Booth barely acknowledged each other when they met up at the airport. They nodded briefly to one another before heading towards the terminal together. The flight was quiet for them, Booth with earphones stuck in his ear and Brennan with her attention focused entirely on the book she'd brought with her.

When they'd landed, they both walked silently beside one another. They didn't need to head to baggage claim, the only thing they'd brought with them were their duffels as their carry-on; even if it had been a long time since they'd taken a trip like this together, they were still familiar with the routine.

After a few awkward bumps and uncomfortable pauses, they made their way to the car rental and got a Tahoe SUV for their duration in Oregon (Booth would've gotten a convertible but there weren't many choices to begin with…Besides, it wouldn't be a practical choice at all considering the drive up to the woods. He wished they were headed to California instead).

Brennan busied herself with the case file during the drive up to the possible crime scene while Booth fiddled with the radio knob, twisting and turning this way and that, trying to find a station he liked.

He couldn't find one; most of the channels came out full of static anyway. He gave up after ten minutes, settling on a twang-y country/rock station - the only one that wouldn't give him a static headache after listening for longer than five seconds. He wasn't a fan of the music but he needed something to fill the air in the car. The silence was killing him and the possibility of conversation was daunting.

"Coming up, a three-song super set from Hootie and the Blowfish!"

Booth groaned and Brennan shot him an amused look, shaking her head as her eyes drew back to the file opened on her lap. He lasted all of fifteen seconds in the Hootie and the Blowfish marathon, and a quick glance at Brennan told him she was trying her hardest not to laugh at him, her shoulders shaking with the effort.

He scowled embarrassedly. "Shut up," he muttered.

She threw him a smirk before clearing her throat, making an exaggerated show of bringing up their case. "So who are we working with here?" she asked. "Anyone you know?"

Booth made a disgruntled noise at the back of his throat. "Someone we both know, actually," he said, frowning. "Do you remember Agent Wilkins?"

Brennan frowned as she remembered the condescending man they'd worked with a few years ago back when they'd had go to Arizona for a case. "We're not in Arizona, Booth, we're in Oregon," she pointed out, making him roll his eyes.

"Yes, I know that, Bones," even though he was irritated at her obliviousness, he couldn't help the pang of fondness he felt at the familiar 'I don't know what that means' look on her face. "He transferred. He's in charge of the scene."

Brennan blew out a frustrated sigh. "Fine," she muttered. "But if he calls me 'hot stuff' or insinuate that the only thing I'm good for is standing around following orders from men, I _will_ kick him in the testicles this time – and you _won't_ stop me," she warned, throwing him daggers with her eyes.

Booth stifled a grin. "I wouldn't dream of it," he promised.

They stopped at a convenience store near the exit leading to the woods where the remains were found, getting a few bottles of water for their trek up to the site. They drove up to the wooded area, meeting up with the agent in charge.

Special Agent Wilkins was even more of a Neanderthal than Brennan remembered and she glowered at him unhappily as they followed him through the woods, trekking on foot. She was glad to be partially rid of him when they finally reached the yellow tapes, speeding up and leaving Booth and Wilkins behind.

She flashed her ID at the agent standing by the yellow tapes and he nodded, granting her access. She ducked under the tape and took out her gloves, putting them on as she slowly approached the first set of remains. It was still partially buried in the dirt and she placed her kit beside her as she crouched down next to the remains, working on carefully uncovering it.

She spent almost the rest of the day at the site, still crouched over the remains when the sun had already set and most of the techs had already left. The day had grown inexplicably grimmer as another much smaller set of remains were uncovered, so clearly that of a child, and Brennan was able to confirm that all four were murder victims.

"Okay," Brennan sighed as she stood up for the first time in hours. She turned to the two techs still helping her. "I'm done with all initial examinations. Please carefully bag the remains and send them to the Jeffersonian."

They nodded and begun work immediately, eager to leave the site and return home, no doubt.

Brennan stretched her aching back and sore arms, sighing once more as her eyes swept across the ground, looking for anything she might be missing. She had already sent samples of soil, particulates on the victim's clothes and anything else that her colleagues back at the Jeffersonian might find useful earlier on. They would be contacting her the next day with anything they would've already discovered.

Booth, who had been leaning against a tree outside the taped-up area, straightened up slightly as she neared him. "Done?" he asked. "So fast?" he couldn't help the sarcasm.

She threw him a glare. "Do you want me to do my job right or not?" she snapped at him.

"Sure I do," he agreed. "But _I_ do my job right and I don't make you wait until it's eleven thirty at night to do it."

She shrugged. "It's hardly my fault your job's easier than mine," she said nonchalantly, swiping an unopened bottle of water from the knapsack at his feet and taking a swig of water.

His eyes flashed. "My job is _not_ easier than yours," he retorted. "Just because I don't sit around playing with dirt all day and poke skeletons and…"

Brennan shot him a look. "Can we go already?" she complained. "I'm starving."

He snorted derisively. "You're blaming me?" he asked incredulously.

"You're the one holding us up by standing there arguing with me," she pointed out.

He glared, crossing his arms over his chest. She did her best not to stare at the impressive muscles of his arms and his chest.

"Okay, I wanted to go hours ago, okay?" he reminded her. "I told you the bones will still be here tomorrow but you insisted on staying. If anyone's to be blamed, it's you for waiting too long."

His last few words struck a nerve with both of them and, again, they were staring at one another, muscles tensed, breaths held, hurt eyes unable to look away.

This time, however, there were no blown tires or horns blaring or friends calling out their names, interrupting them. This time, they continued to stare as though they were about to start hashing out everything again, both fully aware that they still had unresolved issues between them and that there seemed to be a ticking time bomb, threatening to make them explode and let it all out.

"Um…Dr. Brennan?" one of the techs called out tentatively.

Just like that, their gazes were broken, their attention thankfully diverted.

Brennan turned around and answered whatever questions the tech had before she turned back around. Booth already had the knapsack slung over his shoulder and, wordlessly, they walked side by side, trekking back to his rental car.

It was far too late for anything to be open. Booth found the nicest place he could find within a hundred miles of the woods, hoping they'd have room service. Twenty minutes into his search, the dark skies overhead parted and rain started to pour down heavily. He was about to give up his search, resolved to a night with an empty stomach at a motel.

Thankfully, his tired eyes caught sight of a bright sign up ahead. Driving closer, Booth smiled triumphantly as he realized it was a three-star hotel he could just afford with his FBI budget. Pulling into the parking lot right in front of the building, he shook Brennan awake and climbed out of the car.

"Hello," the night manager smiled brightly at them from behind his desk. "Welcome to the Cheshire Cat."

"Right," Booth grunted.

"Room for you and the missus?" the manager asked, turning appreciate eyes towards Brennan.

Booth felt an immediate dislike for the man, heightened when Brennan immediately corrected him, "Oh, no, we're not _together_,' the vehemence behind her words making the man smile wider.

Booth could understand the man's appreciation for Brennan's beauty. _Not that I notice now_, he was quick to think. But back when he was infatuated by her, he'd noticed her ability to look beautiful even when she was tired and had been at a crime scene all day. It wasn't the kind of glamorous beauty that was so common, but a more simplistic beauty. She'd be free of all make-up, her hair would be up in a high ponytail, her eyes would be slightly red and she would still look…_Stunning_.

He could remember thinking how unfair it was that she managed to keep him in awe of her without even realizing it, without even trying.

Of course, just because he had moved on didn't mean that he was fine with a twenty-something year old still-looks-like-a-boy man eyeing her up and down like she was a Porterhouse steak.

"Could you hurry?" Booth asked impatiently, startling the manager who had been staring at Brennan a little too leeringly. "It's been a long day."

Brennan shot him a look that said 'stop being so rude', quirking an eyebrow when she noticed him sidle a little closer towards her.

He checked his computer and winced, looking up at the two of them apologetically. "Oh, I'm very sorry, but there's only one available room left."

Brennan blew out a breath of frustration. "Oh, you've _got_ to be kidding me," she complained through gritted teeth.

Tired as hell, Booth shook his head and waved his hand dismissively. "Fine, we'll take it," he told the manager.

Brennan's head whipped around to give him an incredulous look. "Are you insane?" she hissed at him. "I'm _not_ sharing a room with you."

He gave her an annoyed look. "Look, it's not like I'm thrilled about it, either," he snipped. "But I'm tired as hell, it's past midnight and we've got nowhere else to go. Unless _you_ want to go drive around looking for a place by yourself, we're gonna have to share."

She wasn't pleased by this, but recognizing that she had no choice, reluctantly agreed. "Is there room service available?"

The manager nodded. "Oh, yes, there is," he smiled at her as he handed her the key to their room. "There's a menu up in your room. It's available all the way until three thirty in the morning."

Brennan thanked the manager while Booth merely grunted wordlessly, throwing him a glare as he settled a hand on Brennan's lower back, guiding her towards the elevator. While this action was expected two years ago, now it was still a rare occurrence. Fortunately for him, Brennan was too tired to notice, one hand pressed to her mouth as she delicately hid her yawn.

She took the first shower – frankly, she'd stormed straight into the bathroom, slamming the door while he had collapsed on the single bed in the room; he would've argued but she _had_ been the one working with dirt and skeletonized remains all day – and he took a few moments to rest his tired body before looking around for another place to sleep.

Finding a couch, he walked up to it and tried seeing if it was a pull-out. Unfortunately for him, it wasn't a pull-out and it was a little too small for him to be comfortable in it. Hell, it was probably too small for _Brennan_. Sighing, he searched the wardrobe for extra blankets. He found a comforter and an extra pillow, grabbing both and throwing them on the couch.

Brennan came out of the shower in a billowing steam of lavender. _Oh, good, just what I need_, he thought sarcastically to himself.

"All yours," she told him as she breezed past him without looking at him, going straight for her duffel she'd dumped on the bed earlier, carrying her balled up clothes from earlier in one hand and a bag of toiletries in the other.

Booth stared at her back for a few moments before heading into the bathroom, stepping gingerly onto the cool tiled floor. He closed the door quietly behind him, taking in the smell of lavender around him. It wasn't overwhelming but it wasn't easy to ignore, either.

He groaned as he stripped his clothes off. "Like I really need this right now," he grumbled. Stepping into the shower stall, he tried his best not to think of Brennan and her scent or anything to do with her. Ten seconds into the shower and he turned the knob from red to blue, letting ice cold water rain down on him instead.

When he finally stepped out of the bathroom, he noticed that Brennan had already called room service. She was seated on the floor, her back pressed against the foot of the bed, a plate of ravioli on her lap and her cell pressed to her ear.

She had a small smile on her face as she spoke on her cell phone. "I know," she murmured.

The fondness in her tone, that soft quality, made him want to pick up the phone and call Hannah. Of course, she was out of town on some important lead and he wouldn't be able to reach her. She would call him whenever she was available. He sighed, wishing both he and Hannah were back in DC already.

If he were to say so himself, he was doing a _pretty_ good voice ignoring the steady, dull throb in his heart that was aching for the past when he could call Brennan up at four o'clock in the morning, reeling after a nightmare, and her soft, husky voice would murmur quiet words to him to calm him down before she sat up until the sun came up, listening to him patiently, even if all he could babble on about was pie and how he was missing Sid's food.

"I'm sorry again about having to leave so suddenly. Yes…" Brennan sighed into her phone. The sound of her voice brought Booth away from his thoughts and back to the present. "I know it's late. You should get back to sleep. Okay. Okay, I'll talk to you tomorrow. Goodnight."

He quickly turned away from her as she hung up, busying himself with making a comfortable spot on the couch, fluffing his pillow and spreading the comforter.

"That Kira on the phone?" he asked her casually.

She looked over at him. "Hmm?" she hummed, still smiling a little from her conversation with Kira. "Yes, it was."

"Oh," he blinked. "You ordered room service?" his abrupt change of subject went unacknowledged.

She nodded at the plate of food covered by a silver dome-shaped cloche cover. "I got you some dinner," she told him. "I hope you don't mind. I was starving."

He shook his head. "No, not at all. Thanks," he muttered. Walking over towards the table, he lifted the cloche cover and smiled as he caught sight of the steak and potatoes on it. It looked pretty good and the smell alone was making him salivate, but that might've been his hunger speaking.

"Thanks, Bones," he gave her a grateful smile, picking up the plate and the cutlery next to it.

He paused, looking around for a place to sit. He supposed he could just sit on the couch, where she had no doubt avoided sitting due to the pillow and comforter on it. Debating over it, he decided to sit next to her on the floor. Gingerly settling on the floor next to her, he crossed his legs under him and placed his plate on his lap, digging into his late dinner.

Brennan looked over at him in surprise, having not expected him to sit next to her. Feeling her eyes on him, he turned to look at her as well. For the first time in a long time, their eyes locked together and they didn't feel unbearable tension. Instead, their lips pulled up and they smiled at one another. It was a far cry from a lighthearted moment - and an even farer cry from '_their_ moments' that they had shared for so many years before everything in their world was tipped out of balance - but at least they felt comfortable enough to relax around each other, smile and eat their dinner together in peace.

Reaching to her left, Brennan handed Booth an unopened, still chilled bottle of beer. Seeing it as a sign of truce, even if he knew she didn't see it in any other way but literal, he took it and nodded his gratitude.

"So what are we watching?" he asked, taking a sip of his beer and staring at the familiar faces on screen.

"The TV guide said it's some show called 7th Heaven," Brennan murmured, eyes riveted on the show, soaking in the family drama.

The two of them sat in silence for a long while as they watched Mary and Lucy fighting about some boy with big lips. "Do you think Angela will ever have a life like this?" Brennan asked out of the blue.

Her question was so unexpected – not to mention strange – that he almost gave himself whiplash as he turned to look at her. He swallowed the bite of steak he had in his mouth and gave her a confused look. "What?" he asked, bewildered.

"I mean, I know it won't be exactly like this because Hodgins isn't a reverend – I honestly don't think he's all that religious – and I can't picture Angela being a housewife anytime soon. Or, at all. But she wants a lot of progenies and she and Hodgins have a very solid marriage, don't they?" her blue eyes were clouded as they flickered towards him. "Maybe someday, they'd end up with five children."

"Actually, in the end, they have seven," Booth corrected her. Catching himself, he winced, "I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone I said that."

She ignored him. "They'll have as many children as they can, then she'll open an art gallery and he'll retire when it's time and they'll live happily ever after," even though her words painted a pretty picture, her tone was sad.

Booth shot her a knowing look. "You miss her." It wasn't a question but rather a stated fact.

His words reminded her that she wasn't supposed to be missing Angela when she was with anyone other than Kira. She didn't want anyone else to know just how terribly she longed for her best friend back. After all, Kira understood the loss of Angela's friendship. While the bond between Angela and Kira hadn't been as strong as the one between Angela and Brennan, Angela was a terrible person to lose in your life. Kira could sympathize without being overbearing unintentionally.

However, as she opened her mouth to deny his claim, he quirked an eyebrow and she was struck by the thought that even if they had drifted apart somewhat, and even if they had a lot to re-learn about each other, those deep chocolate brown eyes still knew who she was.

Sighing, she nodded. "I do," she admitted, not surprising him at all. "I've gone seventeen years with her in my life in one way or another. Our sudden separation isn't an easy thing to get used to."

He leveled her with a look, his dark eyes boring into her blue ones in one of those intense gazes she couldn't help but dread some days – it always felt like he knew exactly what was going on in her mind when he gave her one of those looks. Then again, lately, this particular look wasn't a common occurrence. She didn't know whether she should be relieved or saddened by that.

"You don't _have_ to get used to it," he pointed out to her.

She shook her head, throwing him a warning look. "Booth…" she trailed off warningly.

He sat up straighter, placing his half-finished steak to the side. "No, hear me out," he insisted. "Look, I know you and Angela both don't want anyone to meddle on this-"

"No, we don't," she agreed, glaring at him when he ignored her and continued.

"But it's been almost three months, Bones," he pointed out unnecessarily. He sighed when she pointedly ignored him, her eyes fixed on the screen in front of them. Shaking his head, he tried again, "I have never seen the two of you fight like that, and have it last so long."

She sighed, sensing he wasn't going to stop. Grabbing the remote by her feet, she aimed it at the television and pressed the mute button. Turning to look at him, she fixed him with one of those 'I'm only going to say this once so listen up because I'm right and you're wrong and that's just the way that it is' looks she was so good at giving. He was very rarely a recipient of that look. She normally saved it for one of her interns.

"I know how long it's been, Booth," she said, her voice low. "She was my best friend, not yours."

He held up his hands defensively. "Hey, I'm sorry, okay?" he said carefully, aware he was treading on thin ice now. "I didn't mean to step on anyone's toes."

She threw him a bewildered look. "You're sitting down," she pointed out to him as though he was slow enough not to notice that. "You can't possibly be-"

"Figure of speech, Bones."

"Oh. Right," she cleared her throat. "My _point_ is…I know you're concerned, and thank you for that…"

He was still staring at her as though she was making the worst mistake of her life and she was the only one who didn't realize it. His eyes were filled with pity, which she hated. It only reminded her of their heated exchange in the rain a few months back regarding Hannah.

Getting a sudden strike of inspiration, she looked him straight in the eyes and asked, "Disregarding everything you must've heard from Angela-" Because she knew Angela and therefore she knew that there was no chance she hadn't ranted about Kira's presence to the people closest to her. "What do _you_ think of Kira?"

He looked a little surprised at the question. Shifting a little uncomfortably from his position on the floor, he shrugged. "I think she's…Okay," he said carefully. At Brennan's raised eyebrow, he sighed and told her, "I don't really know her well. I've barely spoken to her."

"You spoke to her in Virginia," she reminded her.

He gave her a pointed look. "She was a suspect then," he dismissed. "I didn't make it a point to bond with her – unlike you."

She glowered. "I already knew her prior to our meeting in the vineyard. It would've been rude of me to ignore her," she sniffed. "And I knew she had nothing to do with our case whatsoever."

"No, you _hoped_ she had nothing to do with our case," he corrected her. "Hoping and knowing are two completely different things."

"Excuse me, but nothing I did with Kira in Virginia compromised our case," she snapped defensively.

He held up a hand. "Okay, you know what? We're getting off topic," he said hastily. The last thing he wanted was to get into an argument with her at one thirty in the morning.

She nodded, agreeing. Taking a deep breath, she continued making her point in a much calmer tone of voice. "Look, Kira is a good person," she said. "And you know that, even if you won't say it to me. She's nice and she's here and she's…It's my second chance with her."

"Third, actually," he couldn't help but interject.

She smacked him on the arm. "Approve, don't approve," she said, shaking her head at his stubbornness. "But I'd appreciate it, as my partner…And-and my friend," she added slightly shakily. "I'd like it if you supported me."

Booth gazed at her for a long moment. "Bones…" he said softly, reaching out as though to take her hand. His fingers hovered over hers for a moment before he retracted, their skin not touching.

She ignored the sting his hesitation caused her and swallowed back the wave of longing she felt at the tenderness in his voice.

"I supported you when Hannah came along," she blurted out, completely shocking him. "Even when I was…When I had my own things going on."

He suppressed a wry smile. "Yes, you did," he nodded. "Support me, I mean."

"There was the time I got angry at you," she conceded. "But that was long time coming by then. And you went behind my back by sending that e-mail. And I was still in shock over Hannah's presence…"

"Bones," he tried to interrupt.

"But I still supported you," she reminded him. "If you needed to go home earlier to her, I covered your paperwork. If you brought her to the diner to have lunch with the rest of us, I welcomed her. When she came by Jared's place and no one knew how to react to her, I held your back."

"You _had_ my back," he both corrected and agreed with her all at once.

"I mean, Angela hated Hannah," she told him, making his eyebrows shoot up to his hairline.

"She did?" This was news to him. Hannah wasn't exactly chummy with his work buddies but that he had mostly attributed to him trying his best to keep the two aspects of his life separate.

Brennan nodded. "Yes, she did."

"Why?" his forehead wrinkled.

She shrugged, "It's a principle thing," she assured him. "She's over that now. I think. I mean, Hannah's lovely. We all know that. When she first showed up, it was just a shock for everyone."

He nodded slowly. "O…Kay…" he muttered, blinking rapidly.

"But I supported you and I defended Hannah," Brennan informed him. "Even if I wasn't exactly fond of her presence, I did that."

He sighed, running a hand over his face.

"Booth," her voice was softer and the slightly pleading edge made him look at her, albeit a little warily. "You and Angela…You're my closest friends. I've already lost her. Please tell me I'm not losing you, too."

The vulnerability in her voice wasn't something he heard often. It was only something he'd only ever been born witness to during rare moments like when her father and brother had abandoned her again and she felt like she had no family in the world, or when she had been grieving Zack's betrayal.

It made him want nothing more than to gather her in his arms and hold her close.

Instead, locking his muscles in place so he wouldn't be able to act on his temptation, he assured her quietly, "You won't lose me."

She gazed at him for a long moment, her eyes searching his, before she nodded. "Okay," she murmured quietly. Sighing, she stood up. "I'm going to head to bed," she told him, grabbing her mostly empty plate and placed it on the bar near the door, covering it with the lid once more.

He watched her for a few moments before deciding to do the same. There was still food left on his plate but, for some reason, he was no longer hungry, his stomach churning slightly. Doing the same with his plate, the two passed by each other quietly, not meeting each other's eyes as they moved.

"Goodnight, Booth," Brennan called out quietly as she slipped underneath the covers of the bed.

He nodded, "Goodnight, Bones." He felt like there was something else he should say to her but, not knowing _exactly_ what else to say, he sat down on the couch, releasing a groan as he stretched out supinely on the couch.

Brennan watched a part of some comedy show she didn't recognize for a few minutes before her eyes began to droop. Turning off the TV, she placed the remote on the nightstand next to the bed and snuggled further into the covers.

Her weary mind took a few minutes to shut off, as usual. She was just about to drift off when she heard Booth. He was tossing and turning, kicking the arm of the couch slightly as he attempted to get comfortable. She squeezed her closed eyes tightly, hoping he'd stop moving around so she could go to sleep. Every slight movement he made was loud in their entirely too quiet room.

However, he continued to shift around, the comforter crinkling every time he did so. When he let out a low, quiet groan at how painful his back was at having to sleep on the crammed couch, Brennan sighed, her eyes snapping open.

In the darkness, Booth hadn't realized she was awake or even aware of his uncomfortable position. She allowed herself to look at him from her spot in bed, her thoughtful gaze going unnoticed by him.

In spite of how, just two hours ago, things had been beyond uncomfortable between them, Brennan found herself contemplating letting him take the other half of the bed.

It wasn't as though they had never shared a bed before. They'd had to share plenty of times before in their partnership. By their third and fourth years as partners, whenever they'd go out of town for a case and ended up having to share for some odd reason (like having to live in a trailer to give the illusion that they were a Russian married circus couple), it wasn't even questioned by either of them. It was just sort of…Accepted. _Expected_, even. They'd get ready to sleep, slip into bed, say goodnight to one another and fall asleep. And if they woke up wrapped in each other's arms – which happened more times than anyone would believe – then all they would do was smile, whisper good morning and get on with their day.

Of course things were different now. Not only were they with other people – unlike how they'd both somehow remained single for the better part of three to four years in their partnership before – they were no longer on too-friendly terms like they had been back then.

It was shocking how much change a year could bring.

Still, even with everything in their lives putting a solid steel wall between them, Brennan was concerned about him. _That_ was one thing that she knew would never change.

She knew that a year couldn't have cured his back. He liked to believe he was invincible sometimes, and she'd had moments when she couldn't fathom the thought of a world without him (he seemed so sure of his abilities, after all, and she was doubly more so), but with his increasing age, she knew that sleeping on the couch was an even bigger horror now than it had been three years ago – or even a year ago.

Sighing as she heard his comforter rustling once more, she spoke up, "Booth."

Her utterance of his name startled him. He hadn't been paying attention to anything else but the uncomfortable way the couch was digging into his back. He hadn't realized she was still awake. She hadn't moved an inch when she'd broken the silence in the room, still snuggled underneath the covers in bed, and she hadn't turned on the light.

"Jesus," he swore, his heart racing. "Bones…You scared the hell outta me."

"I did?" she sounded surprised. Still, the room remained dark.

"Yeah," he drawled dryly. "What's wrong? Why are you still awake?"

She reached for the lamp on the nightstand but paused, the fear of a possible uncomfortable rejection from him making her hesitate. She let her arm drop away, tucking it back under her pillow.

She ignored his question, asking instead, "Are you uncomfortable?"

The question was so out of left field, he laid in silence for several moments, blinking in her general direction. "What?" he asked blankly.

"Your back," she elaborated, silently wondering why it was that her words were coming out far less eloquent than she would've liked. "Is it painful sleeping on the couch?"

It took him a moment to feel guilty that he was shocked by her concern and another to realize that it was probably alright for one partner to be concerned over the other. That was just the way it worked, right? You had your partner's back. Nothing romantic about that whatsoever.

"Oh, well, yeah," he admitted sheepishly, quietly. "A little."

She remained silent for a few long moments. Just when he'd thought she had drifted off to sleep, this being the extent of her mild concern for him, she spoke again, interrupting another one of his attempts at finding a more comfortable spot.

"You could just sleep here in the bed."

The overwhelming silence that followed her suggestion made her incredibly glad that the room was drowned in darkness. She didn't need to see him looking reluctant and looking stoic while he turned her down. She didn't need him to see the embarrassment on her face, either. The vulnerability of her offer was enough of a humiliation for her.

"Bones…" he trailed off, and she knew he was going to decline.

"I promise to be on my best behavior, Booth," she \told him, her tone slightly wry. "There's plenty of room here. It doesn't make sense for you to sleep on the couch."

"Yes," he disagreed. "It does."

Brennan sighed. She sat up slightly, glaring at him even if he couldn't see her in the dark. "Booth," she chided.

"Bones…" he said, his discomfort showing blatantly in his tone. "I just don't think it's a good idea…I mean with everything that has happened between us…It's just not the same, you know? We-we can't just…" he trailed off.

She rolled her eyes. "I'm not about to take advantage of you in your sleep, Booth," she said dryly. "I'm merely concerned about your back."

When he remained silent, she sighed heavily. "You know what? Why don't we switch places? I'll take the couch, you take the bed," she offered instead.

"No," his reply came instantaneously. "Bones, you don't have to do that."

She sat up completely, tugging the covers away from her body. "Apparently I have to, since you're being such a child about this," she snapped.

He'd retort but he couldn't sense any anger behind her words. Besides…She was trying to do something considerate for him and the last thing he wanted was to repay her by being ungrateful and snappish. They were already treading on shaky grounds as it was. He didn't need to make things more difficult.

"Bones…" he started to protest.

"Booth, I don't have back problems," she pointed out. "You do."

_Thank you, Bones, for making me feel old_, he thought sarcastically.

Oblivious to his grumpiness, she continued, "It only makes sense that we switch places."

He sighed heavily, letting his head drop back on the hard arm rest he had been trying to sleep on. Swiping a hand down his face, Booth closed his eyes tiredly for a moment, placing his arm over his eyes. He opened them when he felt a sharp poke on his arm.

"Bones, what the hell?" he grumbled as he saw her dark outline standing over him.

She placed her hands on her hips and quirked an eyebrow at him. "Would you just get in bed already?" she snapped at him. "I'm very tired and would like to get some sleep."

"No one's stopping you," he retorted finally, his own tiredness overpowering his surprise at her actions and his gratitude.

She reached out to yank at the string attached to the floor lamp next to the couch. Booth blinked rapidly at the sudden brightness, reeling away from the harsh light. "Jeez, Bones!" he swore.

When his eyes finally adjusted to the light, Booth looked up to find Brennan glowering at him. "You know I can hear you, right?" she asked him. At his blank look, she elaborated, "When you move around. This room is very quiet and every move you make is highly amplified to my ears."

He grimaced embarrassedly. "Oh," he muttered. "I'm sorry."

She sighed, rolling her eyes. "Just go sleep on the bed, Booth," she told him wearily. "I'm fine on the couch."

Seeing the determined look in her eyes, he knew very well that he wouldn't win against her. _Besides_, he reluctantly admitted. _It would be nice to sleep on that bed rather than on this thing_.

He exhaled loudly. _What I'm doing is not cheating_, Booth told himself as he threw back the comforter. _All we're doing is sharing a bed. As in, she sleeps on one side, I sleep on the other…Maybe I should put pillows between us…_

"Fine," he agreed after another moment of hesitation. "But you're not taking the couch, either, Bones."

She blinked at him, surprised.

"Do you know how uncomfortable this thing is?" he gave her a weak smile. "I can't let you sleep on it."

She bristled. "'_Let_' me?" she repeated, incensed.

He held up both hands, backtracking. "You know what I meant, Bones," he said hastily. "I just meant, you know…As your friend…It would be wrong of me to let…Uh, I mean, to take your bed while you take this uncomfortable piece of crap."

She shuffled her weight from one foot to another. "You know I've been to war zones and third world countries," she reminded him. "I've slept on surfaces much more uncomfortable than that."

He quirked a humorless smile. "Yeah, me too," he retorted gently. "But I still…Look, you were right. We'll both take the bed."

She eyed him warily. "Are you sure?" she asked him, their roles reversed now. "Because just two minutes ago…"

He shook his head, swinging his legs over the edge of the couch. "I'm sure," he said in a final tone. They could do the back and forth thing all night but he was frankly a little too burned out for that. "Let's just go to sleep."

She nodded. Both of them headed towards the bed, Booth gripping the pillow he had grabbed from the closet in case he really needed it to place between them.

An awkward silence filled the air as they both stood on either side of the bed.

Brennan, fully aware that she was occupying the side Booth was used to sleep on (they both preferred the same side; whenever they had to share a bed, they often took turns after arguing the first few times), gestured towards the crinkled sheets. "I can move, if you'd like…" she offered.

He shook his head, a flash of hazel eyes and blonde hair going through his mind as he remembered his play fight with Hannah in his bed her first night in DC with him, her laughter ringing through his room as the two rolled around on the mattress. It had been a meaningless 'fight' since they both slept on separate sides of the bed, but she had looked so beautiful and he'd remembered starting the silly game just for a reason to touch her.

He swallowed, wondering why his heart ached so badly as he stared across the bed at Brennan, and why a tiny lump of bile started to form in his throat at the memory now. "No, it's okay," he assured her once he was sure his voice wouldn't crack when he spoke. "I'm fine on this side."

She nodded, then turned her eyes away from him. He sent a silent pray of thanks to the big guy upstairs for that – he was starting to get that 'heart-beating-madly-butterflies-in-his-stomach' symptom he'd always get around Brennan and he just wasn't ready to consider what it meant. Not when he suffered the same symptoms around Hannah.

Brennan didn't look at him again, or uttered another word, as she slipped under the covers. The moment her head hit the pillow, she turned on her side, facing away from his side of the bed, and her body stilled completely.

He knew she wasn't asleep, of course. Her body was far too tense to be in slumber. There was nothing he desired to say to her to break the awkwardness, however, so he merely stayed silent as he gingerly pulled back the comforter on his side and slipped inside.

He laid on his back, his arms stiffly stuck to his sides and his entire unmoving, until he lost consciousness. Eventually, their breathings slowed and their bodies relaxed as they drifted off to sleep.

* * *

She was jolted awake barely two hours later by the loud crash of thunder. She sat up in bed, startled awake by the sound, and looked around the darkened room, heart racing wildly. She was a little too disoriented by the little sleep she had managed to get, and was confused as to what had awoken her for a moment before lightning flashed and thunder boomed in the distance once more.

Brennan stared out the hotel room window. It was too dark to see anything, but she could still hear the pitter-patter of the raindrops falling against the window. She gazed out into the dark night outside for a long moment, her knees drawn to her chest as she listened to the thunderstorm outside.

It was funny how, when she was a little kid, she used to love thunderstorms.

When it had still been appropriate for such a thing, she had rushed into her parents' room at the mention of a thunderstorm in the middle of the night. Her parents would always be waiting for her, knowing what she desired: they'd cuddled under the covers and listened to the loud rain and, if it went on for hours, her mother would make hot chocolate, wake a grumpy Russ up and they'd 'camp' in the living room together.

If she and her childhood best friend Christopher were having sleepovers, he would be included in the thunderstorm festivities, of course. She and Christopher had their own 'traditions' for thunderstorms - most of them were things he had made up because they had sounded like 'fun'.

When she had grown older, she'd enjoyed thunderstorms simply because it seemed peaceful to her somehow. She'd lay in her own bed, and stay up listening to the rain and reminiscing over the days when she was younger and things had been so much simpler. Thunderstorms were a soothing balm after a bad day at school or a fight with her parents.

Christopher still maintained their 'thunderstorm traditions' even as they reached adolescence. They weren't allowed to have 'sleepovers' anymore, of course, considering the inappropriateness of the matter but he would still call her each time and they'd stay up talking all night, eating marshmallows and drinking hot chocolate, as the rain poured outside.

Christopher had always indulged in his inner child, no matter how old he grew, and he never failed to encourage her to do the same. It made her feel silly but the thing about Christopher was that she could be as goofy, as nerdy, as awkward as she was…And he wouldn't care. He had never made her feel like she was out of place. He was the only person she'd ever known to make her feel as though all of her oddities were normal, and that she fit so wonderfully into his life.

Then, of course, she had turned fifteen and her parents had disappeared. Entering the foster system, she and Christopher had been forced to abandon this particular tradition of theirs. He could barely keep up with her ever-changing phone numbers as she was carted off from one home to another, and even if he could, her time on the phone was always limited.

A year later and he had been forced to part with her even more when his family had moved to Japan due to his father's business ventures.

Thunderstorms were marred for her now.

Instead of the happy, peaceful feelings she'd had in her younger days, these days all she could remember during thunderstorms was the particularly horrible night at the foster home she'd spent only one night in. The couple – a married pair in their mid-forties who had become foster parents because they 'had no children of their own' – had taken her in a few hours earlier in the day.

It had been pouring rain since morning, and even though her social worker had kept up a steady stream of chit-chat mentioning how the weather was a 'downer', Brennan had felt at peace, maybe even hopeful.

Of course, that had all changed when she had met the Olivers'. Mr. Oliver had been a drunk, but social services had never caught on to that. Mr. Oliver had, in the dead of the night during the heaviest thunderstorm of Brennan's life, crashed into her new room, kicked open her door and gave her the worst beating she had ever received in her life.

She could still remember the nurses commenting on how lucky she had been to be alive after she had 'run away and stumbled into a group of drunken men' – a cover story provided by the Olivers', no doubt. Her social worker had gotten suspicious, nonetheless, and had taken her from the Olivers' and placed her in a group home for the next two months.

Brennan gasped quietly as a particularly loud clash of thunder brought her back into the present. Shaking her head, Brennan ran a hand through her messy hair. _That was a long time ago_, she reminded herself. _You're a stronger woman now. No one can hurt you_.

Resisting the urge to look behind her at her sleeping partner, Brennan slowly unfurled her legs and laid back down on her side. Tucking her hands underneath her pillow, she tried to fall back asleep. Her eyes remained wide open, however, as they continued to unseeingly gaze stubbornly out the window.

Her body tensed when she felt a strong, warm arm slide over her stomach, curling protectively around her body.

Even though she had to take several deep breaths to calm her quivering insides at the feel of his touch, so intimate for the first time in the longest time, she could literally feel the nauseating wariness of thunderstorms receding and a calming feeling spreading over her lax limbs. Her eyes were already drooping tiredly once more, her lack of rest catching up to her again.

Nuzzling her face into her pillow, she mumbled a quiet, "Thank you, Booth."

In the still of the night, her words felt far too loud.

She felt his arm squeezing her gently once around the middle. "You're welcome, Bones," his rumbling, sleepy voice replied just as silently.

She fell asleep, her mind and body completely at ease for the first time since they'd boarded the plane to Oregon, his arm still wrapped around her.

* * *

They had booked out of the hotel the first thing in the morning. Although their situation couldn't be helped on that one rainy, too-late night, neither one of them wanted a repeat of the awkwardness. They had checked into another hotel which had two separate rooms available for them. It was farther away from the crime scene but, for once, Brennan hadn't complained.

They had woken up completely entangled in each other's arms.

While Booth had offered her some platonic comfort the night before because he knew of her 'fear' of thunderstorms (though she would never actually admit to being afraid) and the reason behind said fear, he hadn't intended to fall asleep with his arm around her. He had been much more tired than he remembered and after their small, sleepy exchange, he had conked out until morning.

He had woken up to find that he had wrapped both his arms around her slim figure while she had rolled into his side, one hand resting on his chest, the other arm flung across his mid-section. Her cheek was pressed into his shoulder, a tiny spot of drooling forming as she snored away…And he had stared at her, completely mesmerized.

The rain had ceased by the time the sun rose, and the warm sunshine had drifted in through the hotel room window. He had watched, entranced, as the ray of natural light had lit up her porcelain cheeks and highlighted the red in her hair.

He had gotten that same wonderful feeling he had gotten with her a year or two back as he held her in his arms. It felt as though he was at peace from the inside, as though all the horrors and all the pain he had endured in his life meant absolutely nothing at all thanks to her.

He had cursed – because if a year apart from her hadn't erased that feeling, what would? – and he had rolled her over onto her back and out of his arms before lightly getting to his feet and taking the first shower.

Once more, as they were checking out, Booth was annoyed by the man-child behind the front desk. Having received information from the source herself that she wasn't together with Booth, the manager offered Brennan a flirty smile and said, "Dr. Brennan…I was wondering…If you're going to be in the area for a little while longer, maybe we could go out for dinner sometime…?"

Booth was too busy glowering at whatshisname to pay much attention to his surroundings – which was why, when Brennan gave her reply, Booth almost choked on his own saliva.

"Oh, that's quite thoughtful of you but I play for the other team," she threw in casually. Giving the stunned manager another smile, she grabbed her duffel and walked out of the hotel with her head held high.

It took Booth a moment to catch up to Brennan and, when he finally did, she was already out front in the parking lot, waiting for him to unlock the car so she could throw her duffel in the trunk. "First of all," Booth said as they both settled into their seats. "It's 'bat for the other team'. And secondly…Where did you even learn to say that?"

She shrugged. "Angela taught it to me once," she said, a hint of wistfulness in her voice. "We went to some college party I didn't enjoy at all and when all these fraternity boys kept coming up to me, it irritated me. Angela told me to say that, implying that I was a lesbian, so that they would leave me alone…" She pursed her lips, thinking it over. "It didn't work as well as I hoped it would but Angela had been strangely gleeful."

Booth stifled a smile. He could just imagine the reactions of hormonal frat boys when they saw two beautiful girls sitting close together and one of them publicly declaring herself to be a lesbian. Angela had probably meant to lighten her friend's mood a little so she'd enjoy the party better.

His good mood was diminished slightly when Brennan murmured, "Of course, now I suppose it's true to an extent…"

Shaking his head, Booth pulled out of his parking space_. If I ever thought this trip was a good idea, then I was an idiot_, he grumbled to himself.

* * *

They were finally back in DC after over a week in Oregon.

Brennan had found that the female remains were older than the rest. She'd estimated that the woman had died about a year and a half before the others. The case had gotten a little complicated when Brennan had found genetic markers between the two little children and the woman. After Angela had sent in her sketch of the four murder victims, they had been able to connect the dots pretty easily.

They were a family of four: a woman by the name of Stephanie Glaser, her husband Robert Glaser and their two young children, Melanie and Danny, aged three and five respectively.

Booth had poked around and, after getting stonewalled when it came to most of Stephanie's life, had found a link: Sarah Anise.

She had been a very close family friend of the Glaser family for years, though she had started out as Robert's best friend. Sarah and Robert had met when they both first started working together at a private wellness center around fifteen years ago. They had become instantaneous friends and others had mentioned that they had never seen one without the other.

Robert had met and fallen in love with another woman named Stephanie eight years into his friendship with Sarah and Sarah had seemed as though she supported the couple fully. She grew close to Stephanie, helped them move in together, was Stephanie's maid of honor at Robert's and Stephanie's wedding and was godmother to both Melanie and Danny.

But, of course, things were never that simple with human beings: Sarah had been in love with Robert since the very beginning. Many of their friends admitted that they were surprised when Stephanie first came into the picture as they had all expected Robert and Sarah to get together in the end. A few of their closest friends admitted that something 'almost happened' between the two but it ended before it began, and then Stephanie had swooped in.

Sarah, who had finally 'snapped' after Robert had confided in her plans for him and Stephanie to move to New York City to be closer to her family as she went through her third pregnancy, had killed Stephanie first. She had made it look like Stephanie had 'ran away' though no one in her family had heard from her since.

Sarah had 'been there' for Robert, in hopes of taking Stephanie's place. But Robert, too deeply in love with Stephanie, had fallen into a sort of depression – one that Sarah couldn't pull him out of no matter how hard she tried.

A year and a half of her futile attempts, Robert had found out about Sarah's hand in Stephanie's 'disappearance'. Aggrieved, they two had fought – violently – and Sarah had stabbed him without actually meaning to. Robert dead, Sarah had 'gone crazy' according to Booth and killed the two young children as well. She'd buried them in the same place she'd buried Stephanie almost two years ago but the act of killing the man she loved shook her up more than killing Stephanie had. Sarah's alibi had been very weak and, after a few tiny prods from Booth, she had broken down and confessed to murdering all four of them.

Now, the crime-fighting duo back in DC, they sat with Cam and Wendell in the Jeffersonian lounge overlooking the platform, doing the 'quiet contemplation' they always did after a horrid case. Angela and Hodgins had gone home before Booth and Brennan had even arrived at the lab, citing Angela being 'too tired' as the reason for their early departure. Brennan tried not to be too upset about that.

"It's just so tragic," Cam was saying, shaking her head as she and Wendell received the full story behind Sarah's crimes. "I can't help feeling sorry for her."

"Who?" Wendell asked, his eyebrows furrowing together.

Cam blinked. "Sarah," she said, as though this was the obvious answer.

Wendell looked at her, bemused. "You feel sorry for a woman who killed four people, including two little children?" he asked her incredulously.

Booth interrupted, "She didn't _set out_ to be a murderer, though. She just…"

"It was a crime of passion," Cam finished for him.

Booth snapped his fingers together. "Exactly!"

Wendell shook his head. "On some level, I can understand that," he acknowledged. "But a part of me can't sympathize. I mean, she butchered two little kids in cold blood…That takes a special kind of crazy."

Cam shuddered. "Okay, you know what?" she said, standing up from her seat and grabbing her coat. "This is just too creepy for me to think about before going home to an empty house in the middle of the night." Internally, she cursed her boyfriend Paul for having to go on a conference out of town.

Wendell nodded. "I should head home, too," he said, standing up as well. "I'll walk you to your car?" he offered Cam.

Cam smiled at him. "That'd be great, Wendell, thank you," she turned to Booth and Brennan. "I'll see you guys tomorrow."

Both the partners waved at Cam and Wendell as they walked down the lounge stairs and exited the lab. Booth and Brennan were silent for a long time as they leaned against the lounge railing, gazing out at the empty lab down below.

"You've been quiet the entire time we were talking about the case," Booth finally said, turning his head to look at her briefly.

It had struck him as odd considering Temperance Brennan had an opinion on just about everything. But ever since he had made the connection concerning the case and they'd gotten the confession out of Sarah, Brennan had grown silent. She hadn't spoken a word to him all the way back to DC and had let him do all the talking to explain Sarah's arrest to Cam and Wendell when, normally, she would've jumped in to correct him at every turn.

She shrugged. "The case…Sarah…" Brennan sighed, running a hand down her face. "I guess I've just been doing a lot of thinking about it all." Offering him a weak smile, she said, "You'd laugh if you knew my thoughts. They're far too close to psychology for my liking."

He smiled slightly. "Well, I'm not saying I buy everything Sweets say, but sometimes psychology can be pretty useful," he pointed out. When she fell silent again, he asked, "Do you want a sympathetic ear?"

She blinked at him. "Excuse me?"

He couldn't help his full blown grin this time. She looked positively incredulous, as though he had actually offered to cut off his ear and give it to her. If she hadn't understood the phrase, then he supposed that was exactly what it had sounded like to her. "I meant, do you want to talk about it?" he clarified.

She nodded. "Oh," she said understandingly. "I…Not really."

He gave her a knowing look. "You don't sympathize with Sarah, like Cam does?" he guessed correctly.

Her head snapped towards him, her eyes wide in shock. "Wha…How did you know that?" she asked him, sounding shocked beyond belief.

His grin had a slight swagger to it, and she found that she missed his cocky moments - she had long ago stopped being truly annoyed by his cockiness, even if she continued to pretend that she was. "I noticed your face got all pinched when Cam said she felt sorry for Sarah," he said, gesturing at her face with his finger.

She scowled at him, swatting his arm lightly. "My face did _not_ get all pinched," she chided him playfully.

"Mm-hmm."

Despite the lighthearted exchange between them, Brennan could still feel the expectant look he was giving her. Sighing, she admitted, "You're right. I disagree with Cam. Sarah was…She had a lot of things in her past, Booth."

He nodded. "Yeah, I read her files," he reminded her. "Abusive home…Raped by her step-father for five years…Entered an abusive marriage when she was nineteen. Diagnosed with bipolar disease from when she was a teenager…Had two miscarriages in a row in her twenties…She had a bad past. Everyone has that. I mean, not always to that extreme but still…"

She shook her head. "Sarah…" she sighed. "Sarah was damaged goods."

Booth stared after her in shock. Brennan had missed the look on his face, having turned away to walk down the stairs of the lounge. Shaking his head to clear it, he jogged slightly to catch up to her. "Whoa, that's a little harsh, don't you think?" he asked, taking the steps one at a time alongside her.

Brennan shrugged. "Well, that's what she was, Booth," Brennan pointed out. "I'm not saying it to her face but even _she_ knew that she was…" Trailing off, Brennan sighed. "She was so messed up over everything that had happened to her. I mean…She was able to murder Stephanie, hide her body and then head back to Robert and the kids and pretend like everything's fine. That isn't normal, Booth. She had to have known that, somewhere inside her mind…Sarah could barely think clearly enough for herself. What made her think that she could be someone else's wife and mother?"

Booth shrugged. "She was in love with the man, Bones," he said quietly. "Love makes people do crazy things sometimes."

"If she really loved him, she should've let him go," Brennan argued. "She was…Too conflicted. Her past made her so confused, so unable to be normal enough for someone like Robert. Robert had none of the bad things in Sarah's past."

Booth shook his head. "He was in the Marines for a while," he reminded her.

She waved that aside. "It doesn't compare," she dismissed. "What she went through…It affected her badly enough to change who she was, morph her views on life. She was too…" she swallowed hard. "Stephanie, on the other hand, was so much better for Robert. She was able to give him things he greatly desired – a normal, loving family, children, marriage…All the things that Sarah coveted but would never be able to live out."

Booth halted in his tracks in the middle of the lab and, noticing his lack of movement, Brennan stopped as well, turning around to face him. One look into her sad blue eyes and Booth knew that she was no longer speaking about Sarah, Robert and Stephanie.

Staring at her for a long while, he searched for his voice. "So," he said finally. "You think that, if you were in Sarah's place, you would've been able to step aside? For Stephanie, I mean."

Brennan nodded, her eyes never leaving his as they stood opposite one another. "I would."

"Just like that?"

"I'm not saying it would be easy," she acknowledged. "I know it'd be difficult…Essentially one of the hardest things I would ever have to do."

Without even realizing their actions, Booth and Brennan took one step closer to one another, their eyes conversing words that weren't spoken by their lips. "But Robert…" Brennan stuck to the story. "He was a good man, wasn't he? He was faithful to his wife, he was a good father, he had a sense of what's right and wrong and he did his country and his family proud…He was a good man."

Booth nodded. "He was," he agreed quietly.

"Then he deserved…" she sucked in a deep, shaky breath. "_Everything_. He deserved everything. And that wasn't something that Sarah could've given him. She was…She had too much hurt in the past to be able to open her heart enough for him. Even though she desired nothing more than to give him everything, it wasn't in her to let that happen."

"Given time…" Booth whispered, afraid that if he spoke any louder, he might start to tear up.

She shook her head, wordlessly interrupting him. "No," she protested firmly. "It wouldn't be enough. And Robert knew that. He knew that if he and Sarah had ever taken that step, someday he'd look at her and see it all ending."

"It wouldn't have," Booth denied immediately. "It wouldn't have ended. It would be too amazing, too great. They had a real chance to-to have it all."

She smiled faintly at him. "But would it be what Stephanie could offer him?" she challenged. Booth fell silent. With a heavy heart, Brennan knew that she had been right. "Stephanie could love Robert the way he deserved to be love. If-if I were Sarah…I'd grant him that happiness, even if it pains me to do so."

Booth and Brennan stare into each other's eyes, silence overtaking them.

What she was saying to him he knew was her way of letting go. Even if she had decided to move on before – going on 'casual dates', getting back together with Kira – this was different. This was her saying goodbye to the possibility of them ever being together and giving him up to Hannah, allowing him the freedom of being happy without the burden of feeling guilty.

A part of him, a very profound part of him, mourned the loss of the possibility that they could ever be anything more than 'just partners'. He had seen a beautiful future with Brennan for such a long time, dreamed it for so many years, that letting go was painful. He could still see glimpses of that future with her and closing the door to it was causing a sharp pain in his chest.

Booth reached out, his fingers lightly curled over the tips of hers. His eyes traced over her beautiful face, and he finally opened his mouth to say something – he wasn't sure what it was that he was going to say but he knew that he couldn't give 'them' up without saying a proper goodbye, at the very least.

He was interrupted by Hannah calling his name, "Seeley!"

Startled, he looked over Brennan's left shoulder to see Hannah there, waiting for him and smiling. She had been back in DC for a few days now, as she'd told him over the phone while he had still been trying to figure out the person behind the murders of the Glaser family. He had completely forgotten that he had texted her to pick him up from the lab considering his truck was still at the Hoover.

He turned his head back around to look at Brennan once more. He found a small, pained smile on her face as she saw the slight glitter in his eyes – a happiness at the sound of Hannah's voice.

Opening her mouth to say something – a final goodbye – but was interrupted by Kira's voice. She looked over his left shoulder to see Kira standing on the other end of the Jeffersonian as Hannah.

Kira was grinning wildly, waving excitedly at Brennan, and the look in her eyes told Brennan even from afar that she had gone through some sort of 'adventure' in the week that Brennan had been gone (be it signing up for belly dancing lessons impulsively after yoga class one morning, or planning a deep sea diving trip for them, Kira was always on the move and was always looking for something that would challenge herself and make her life more interesting, having never been interested in the stuffy, frivolous lifestyle her parents had) and was itching to tell her all about it.

Her eyes drifting back to Booth, she offered him a small, slightly awkward smile. They retracted their hands, and shared a secret smile, marred with the sadness of having to let go and the grief of having to start over without the other. Of course they were still going to see each other all the time but being involved in their work lives was a lot different than what they could've had.

"I guess I'll just…See you Monday," Booth said finally, breaking the awkward silence. They had to leave at some point, especially considering Hannah and Kira were standing right there, waiting for them.

"If there are dead bodies around," Brennan attempted to joke.

"There are _always_ dead bodies around," Booth's silent, unspoken promise that no matter what, he would always be there for her if she needed him. The glimmer in her cloudy blue eyes told him she understood exactly what he was trying to say.

They gazed at each other a second longer.

"Goodbye, Booth," Brennan whispered in a monumental moment for them – the goodbye he had been dreading ever since he realized exactly what she was trying to say at the beginning of their conversation.

Unable to say anything, however – how could he when the woman he had moved on with and fallen for was standing ten feet away from the woman he had tried so hard and failed epically to stop loving? - Booth simply nodded, his throat closed up.

They moved past one another, reminiscent of two people who had crossed each other's paths and would've been great together had they not simply passed and not stopped to look and admire the wondrous possibilities of 'what could've been'.

It was as though time slowed down when Booth and Brennan moved past each other, and sped right back up as they reached the people they were with, the people they were trying so desperately with to recapture the glimpse of the beautiful future they had seen with no one but each other.

* * *

"There are things that we don't want to happen but have to accept, things that we don't want to know but have to learn, and people we can't live without but have to let go."

Unknown.


End file.
